Historical people

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Life - Justinian WL

Video podcast Justinian: life of the week . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Rune stone. (Photo by Getty Images)

Reading the runes: what we can learn about everyday life in the Viking Age . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A cup depicting a male couple making love

The boy that emperor Nero made his ‘wife’: what the tragedy of the castrated Sporus tells us about homosexuality in ancient Rome

Author/veterinarian Dr. James Alfred Wight (pen name James Herriot) holding up a black cat that he is examining at his veterinary surgery.

Who was the real James Herriot? The true story behind All Creatures Great and Small

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_Vod Life - Catherine de Medici WL

Video podcast Catherine de’ Medici: life of the week . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Bust of Lucius Verus.

The worst Roman emperors: 8 of the bloodiest from ancient Rome’s history

An image of Aethelstan

Æthelstan and the foundation of England: your guide to the ‘first king of the English’

Frida Gustavsson as Freydís Eiríksdóttir in season 3 of Vikings: Valhalla

Was Freydís Eiríksdóttir a hero or a deranged murderess?

Laura Berlin as Emma of Normandy in season 3 of Vikings: Valhalla

Emma of Normandy: not just a two-time queen consort of England

Portrait of Catherine de Medici, also known as the Serpent Queen

Catherine de Medici The life, death and legacy of the 'Serpent Queen'

Suffragettes armed with materials to chain themselves to railings

Suffragettes history facts: 10 things you might not know about the Votes for Women campaigners

Suffragette Annie Kenney

8 famous suffragettes and votes for women campaigners

Emily Davison, photographed a few days before she was fatally injured after stepping in front of the king's horse during the Derby

Emily Davison: the suffragette who stepped in front of the king’s horse

An African samurai: the tall, strong African man who acquired the name Yasuke in Japan was at first an object of curiosity but soon became a prized samurai warrior serving a powerful warlord in the violent intrigues that wracked the country during that volatile era. ((Illustration by Lynn Hatzius for BBC World Histories)

Who is Yasuke? The true story of the African who became Japan’s first black samurai

Oleg Gordievsky

Oleg Gordievsky: the double agent who changed the course of the Cold War