Historical people

Virginia Woolf, writer and critic. (Image by Getty Images)

Virginia Woolf: a brief guide to the writer’s life

Mary Anning (Kate Winslet) and Charlotte Murchison (Saoirse Ronan) in Francis Lee's new film 'Ammonite'. (Photo courtesy of Lionsgate UK / See-Saw Films)

The real history behind Ammonite

Michelangelo was a Renaissance sculptor, painter and visionary. This 17th-centruy portrait was completely shortly after his death

Your guide to Renaissance sculptor and painter Michelangelo

A medieval illustration of women fighting and toiling alongside men during a siege

Crusader queens: the formidable female rulers of Jerusalem

Mary Anning was an extremely prolific fossil hunter

Mary Anning: the woman who hunted dinosaurs

'Pirate queen' Grace O'Malley. (Illustration by Sue Gent for BBC History Revealed)

Grace O’Malley: the fearless pirate queen of Ireland

Mary Seacole is best known for her work during the Crimean War, where she cared for injured soldiers. But she was also well-known as a hotelier, traveller and author – a celebrity of the Victorian era. This is a contemporary painting of her

Mary Seacole Victorian celebrity, joyful hotelier and Crimean nurse

A 19th-century depiction of HMS Erebus in the ice, by François Etienne Musin. What exactly happened to the ship and its crew remains a mystery. (Picture by Alamy)

The Franklin Expedition: what happened on the ill-fated Victorian voyage?

A painting of Henry IV, housed in the National Portrait Gallery, London. English earls, Scottish kings, French dukes and a Welsh prince all tried to unseat Henry, yet this most resilient of medieval monarchs prevailed over them all. (Photo by Getty Images)

Henry IV: the usurper king

Otto von Bismarck, pictured on horseback, was instrumental in the creation of a unified German state and was among the most influential politicians of late 19th-century Europe.(Photo by ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

Otto von Bismarck: a brief guide to the ‘founder of modern Germany’

Harold Godwinson is proclaimed king of England in the Bayeux Tapestry. It may have been commissioned by a Norman but this magnificent artwork repeatedly acknowledges the English leader’s piety and courage. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

Why is Harold Godwinson a hero of the Bayeux Tapestry?

Volunteers shovel sand in Fulham in 1941, filling bags used to protect windows from bomb blasts. Our clichés of the Blitz don’t tell the whole story, writes Lucy Worsley. (Photo by Mary Evans)

Lucy Worsley on Blitz Spirit: the courageous stories of six Londoners

Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman to receive a medical degree in the US

Elizabeth Blackwell The ‘first female doctor’, who entered medicine to prove a point

A depiction of Robin Hood, the heroic archer in English folklore who supposedly robbed the rich and gave to the poor. (Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images)

Robin Hood: 7 myths about the legendary outlaw of Sherwood Forest

The Sutton Hoo excavations are the focus of a new film, 'The Dig'. Carey Mulligan stars as Edith Pretty, and Ralph Fiennes portrays Basil Brown

Second World War

The Dig: the real history of the remarkable Sutton Hoo excavation