Historical people

Glamis Castle is said to be the most-haunted castle in Scotland. (Photo by mpalis via Getty Images)

A royal ghost tour: 5 haunted sites around Britain

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Thomas More: saint or sinner?

Tom Cribb lands a punch on Tom Molineaux while Molineaux's trainer, Bill Richmond, looks on. Molineaux got the upper hand in the pair's first fight – which ended in controversy when a mob stormed the ring – but was defeated in this, the 1811 rematch. (Edward Gooch/Edward Gooch/Getty Images)

The ‘Black Terror’: the story of Britain’s first black sports star

Grigory Yefimovich Novykh, also known as Rasputin

Rasputin: the ‘mad monk’ who became a friend to the Romanovs

Michael Wood reveals how Hadrian, a little-known “man of Africa”, helped lay the foundations of English culture

The African who transformed Anglo-Saxon England

Empress Matilda

Empress Matilda, daughter of Henry I: a queen in a king’s world

William Cecil, also known as Lord Burghley, with Queen Elizabeth I. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Your guide to William Cecil, chief adviser to Queen Elizabeth I

It was the need for witnesses in divorce courts – ones who wouldn’t mind their names being linked to scandals, no less – that partly gave rise to female detectives. (Photo by Rischgitz/Getty Images)

Women detectives: meet the Victorian female super sleuths

Painting of Masons building a pillar in a church

General Early Modern

Your guide to... the Freemasons

Old Norse sages describe Gudrid Thorbjarnardóttir as 'the loveliest of women and nobel in every trait'. But this far-travelled Icelandic woman was eulogised largely not for her beauty and charm but as a strong-willed survivor who married three times and bore a son, Snorri, in Vinland (North America) during on of her intrepid voyages (Illustration by Lynn Hatzius)

The amazing life of a great female Viking explorer

Francisco Franco, who ruled Spain as dictator from 1939 to 1975, raises his arm in salute

Francisco Franco: is it accurate to call the Spanish dictator a fascist?

Edward the Confessor, depicted on the Bayeux Tapestry

Edward the Confessor: 9 fascinating facts

Attila the Hun

General ancient history

Who was Attila the Hun, the barbarian ruler who terrorised the Romans?

An engraving of Margaret Tudor

The forgotten Tudor: Margaret Tudor, sister of Henry VIII

Portrait by Sherril Schell of British poet Rupert Brooke. (Photo by Time Life Pictures/Mansell/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

First World War

WW1 poets 5 famous figures you should know about