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Portrait of William Shakespeare from the title page of the First Folio of Shakespeare's plays; copper engraving by Martin Droeshout, 1623. One of the earliest portraits of Shakespeare. (Photo by GraphicaArtis/Getty Images)

Shakespeare: the historians’ view

A portrait of Catherine Howard. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Catherine Howard: The death of innocence

A portrait of Queen Elizabeth I painted by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger. (Photo by Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

How Shakespeare rewrote history

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Guillaume Apollinaire and his wife, Jacqueline Kolb, on the terrace of the boulevard Saint-Germain in Paris, France, in 1918. (Photo by adoc-photos/Corbis via Getty Images)

My history hero: Guillaume Apollinaire (1880–1918) . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Charles II entering London in May 1660 following the restoration of the monarchy. (Photo by Photo12/UIG via Getty Images)

Clare Jackson "Charles II had to appeal to public opinion more than his predecessors did" . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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The ruins of Fountains Abbey in North Yorkshire. Henry’s motives when dismantling such monasteries “were much more complex than pure revenge or pure avarice alone”, says Adam Morton. (Photo by Getty Images)

History explorer 6 places to explore the dissolution of the monasteries . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Charles II and an Atlantic experiment . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Roman garden at the House of the Golden Cupids, Pompeii. (Linda Farrar)

A guide to ancient gardening

Supporting troops of the 1st Australian Division walking on a duckboard track near Hooge, in the Ypres Sector, 5 October 1917. (Photo by Frank Hurley/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

First World War

What caused the First World War?

Illustration of electric chair

Q&A Who invented the electric chair?

An engraving from Harvey's seminal work showing blood flowing through the veins of the lower arm. (SSPL/Getty Images)

A giant leap for mankind: William Harvey reveals the circulation of the blood

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The Dissolution and a forgotten colony . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Chateau d'Hougoutmont, Belgium, was the scene of one of the most important battles in British and European history – the battle of Waterloo. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Bravery at Waterloo: the button seller and the drummer boy

Chinese lanterns at Kek Lok Si temple, George Town, Penang, Malaysia. (Photo by Inti St Clair/Getty Images)

My favourite place: Penang, Malaysia

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An illustration from an 11th-century manuscript depicting a king and his minister doing justice, c1050. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Medieval English law in the time of Magna Carta . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.