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Ladies-in-waiting

General History

Q&A What did a lady-in-waiting actually do?

US President John F Kennedy gives his first State of the Union address to Congress at the House of Representatives, Washington DC, 30 January 1961. Kennedy is one of eight presidents to have died during their term in office. (Photo by NASA/SSPL/Getty Images)

Q&A How many US presidents died in office?

William of Orange at the battle of the Boyne

Q&A When was England last successfully invaded by a foreign power?

Mary, Queen of Scots and her ladies-in-waiting. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Mary, Queen of Scots: what happened to her ladies-in-waiting?

A beach scene at an Easter Bank Holiday at Southend, c1927. In 1871, the Bank Holiday Act established the first paid days off for commonworkers in England, while some senior managers could be granted extra leave. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

Q&A When were Brits first given leave from work to go on holiday?

Soldiers standing on the western front during WW2

Second World War

10 things you (probably) didn’t know about the Second World War

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Stonehenge

Britain’s key archaeological discoveries . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

In 1358, women finally gained full knightly acceptance in England when they began to be admitted to chivalric orders. (Photo by Eugene Antonov/iStock/Getty Images Plus)

Q&A Could a woman become a knight in medieval times?

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Margaret Hodge has been the MP for Barking since 1994. She held a number of ministerial positions during the 1997–2010 Labour administration, and was appointed DBE in 2015. (Photo by AP/REX/Shutterstock)

History hero Margaret Hodge chooses Katharine Graham (1917–2001) . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Gordon Brown talks to the History Extra podcast about Andrew Carnegie. (Photo by Roberto Ricciuti/Getty Images)

Gordon Brown on Andrew Carnegie . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Emperor Nero and the fire in Rome

Q&A Did Emperor Nero really play the fiddle while Rome burned?

The leaning tower of Pisa

Q&A Why does the Tower of Pisa lean to one side?

Now a protected species in many countries, the hedgehog was once also a health food. A German cookbook dating from the mid-15th century recommends the meat of a hedgehog as useful for leprosy and urinary retention. (Photo by Yuri SmityukTASS via Getty Images)

Hedgehogs, cannabis bread and horse placenta: 13 weird and wonderful health foods in history

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Criminal register photographs at Wormwood Scrubs prison, around 1890. (Photo by SSPL/Getty Images)

Prisoner dilemmas . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

18 August 1819: British soldiers charging the crowd at St Peter's Fields, Manchester, during a meeting called in support of political reform. (Photo by Spencer Arnold Collection/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

A “more shocking” massacre? How we might have overestimated the Peterloo crowds