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James Hamilton's 1880s painting 'The Massacre of Glencoe'.

Hell at Glencoe: what led to the massacre in the Scottish Highlands?

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Valentine's celebrations in history From fertility festivals to the first cards

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A portrait of King Charles I

Jane Whorwood: the royalists’ secret weapon . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Painting of Bonnie Prince Charlie

Bonnie Prince Charlie: Scottish superhero or Italian coward? . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

PM6241 PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES Seemingly led by the skeletal figurehead, Blackbeard's sinister ship, the Queen Anne's Revenge, at full sail on the open seas.

Queen Anne’s Revenge: why was Blackbeard’s flagship named after the Stuart queen?

Blackbeard, real name Edward Teach, seen standing on a dock with fuses in his beard

Blackbeard: dastardly sea-devil or kind pirate?

Barbary pirates Oruç and Hayreddin Barbarossa, the siblings who famously captured Algiers from the Spanish in 1516

Barbary pirates: the Muslim corsairs and their role in the slave trade

Henry Avery stands on the shore holding a cutlass, while his ship Fancy battles the Ganj-i-Sawai in the background

The real pirates of the Caribbean: your guide to Nassau’s pirate republic

Henry Morgan on ship's deck in battle taking a hostage

Q&A Did pirates really live on the island of Tortuga?

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Gentleman pirate Stede Bonnet is hanged from the gallows

Hunting pirates: how piracy’s golden age came to an end . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Female pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read holding cutlasses

Anne Bonny and Mary Read: the deadly female pirate duo

Map showing Sir Francis Drake's privateering fleet attacking Ribeira Grande the capital of Santiago

Privateers, buccaneers and corsairs: why not all pirates were created equal

The capture of the pirate Blackbeard, 1718. Painting by JLG Ferris. One of history’s most notorious pirates, Edward ‘Blackbeard’ Teach almost certainly had a West Country twang because he was born in Bristol in around 1680. (Photo by Bettmann via Getty Images)

Q&A Did most English pirates really talk with a West Country accent?

A pirate ship flying the Jolly Roger closes in on another vessel during a storm

The golden age of piracy: when pirates ruled the waves

Captain Edward Teach, better known as 'Blackbeard', a pirate who plundered the coasts of the West Indies, North Carolina and Virginia. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The most famous and despicable pirates from history