Painting of Louis VIII and Blanche of Castille

Kings and queens

Why Charles I had to die

Annie Gray portrait by Ian Farrell

Annie Gray“For Queen Victoria, food was a way of exploring the world”. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Photo of Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria: how and why did she become Empress of India?

Princess Feodora (left), half-sister of Queen Victoria (right)

Princess Feodora: the little-known sister of Queen Victoria

Portrait of Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria quiz: how much do you know about the monarch?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

English cavalry attacking the Sikh at the Battle of Aliwal

Victoria the warrior queen

A portrait of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert with five of their nine children, by Frederick Winterhalter

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert: was their union a marriage of misery?

Queen Victoria

The final days and death of Queen Victoria

The decline and death of Henry VIII. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Queen Victoria in her coronation robes.

Your guide to Queen Victoria and a timeline of her life – plus 16 fascinating facts

Portrait of Anne of Cleves

Anne of Cleves: Henry VIII's most successful queen?

The effigy of Eleanor of Castile on her tomb

The love lives of medieval queens

Habsburg dynasty: Maria Theresa, her husband Francis I

The Habsburgs: the dynasty that wouldn’t die

Canterbury Cathedral

How Thomas Becket's feud with Henry II led to murder

Richard III

Richard the radical: was Richard III a champion of the people?

Richard III, Queen Victoria and Henry VIII. (Photos by Getty Images)

Monarchy history quiz: test your knowledge of these kings and queens

Rushton Triangular Lodge was ostensibly a warrener's lodge but the biblical references that adorn its three exterior walls tell a different story. (Photo English Heritage/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

History explorer: Catholic resistance to Elizabeth I. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Henry VI of England. (Photo by iStock/Getty Images)

Henry VI may have had a "sex coach" - plus 4 more curious facts about his life

The future King George VI playing at the Wimbledon tennis championships, 1926

How George VI's sheer ordinariness made him the darling of the nation

Princess Elizabeth, later Queen Elizabeth II, with her husband Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, after their marriage in 1947. (Corbis via Getty Images)

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip: 8 milestones in their marriage

Anthonis Mor's portrait of Mary I from 1554

Mary Tudor: brutal but brilliant

Painting of the Field of Cloth of Gold (artist unknown) from around 1545

Your guide to...the Field of the Cloth of Gold

Emma Corrin as Princess Diana in season 4 of ‘The Crown’

The Crown S4 E10 real history: Thatcher’s resignation and the unravelling of a royal marriage

Emma Corrin as Diana, Princess of Wales and Josh O'Connor as Prince Charles in season 4 of ‘The Crown’

The Crown S4 E9 real history: Prince Charles’s ski avalanche accident and his failing marriage to Diana

Gillian Anderson as Margaret Thatcher in season 4 of ‘The Crown’

The Crown S4 E8 real history: why did Margaret Thatcher & the Queen clash over apartheid in South Africa?

Helen Bonham Carter as Princess Margaret in 'The Crown'

The Crown S4 E7 real history: Princess Margaret’s decline and a royal secret revealed

Diana, Princess of Wales, played by Emma Corrin in Netflix's 'The Crown'

The Crown S4 E6 real history: Charles and Diana’s 1983 royal tour of Australia & the start of ‘Dianamania’

Gillian Anderson as Margaret Thatcher in season 4 of 'The Crown'

The Crown S4 E5 real history: Michael Fagan’s Buckingham Palace break-in and the Falklands crisis

Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth II and Josh O'Connor as Prince Charles in season 4 of ‘The Crown’

The Crown S4 E4 real history: mothers in the spotlight and the ‘favourite’ royal child

Emma Corrin as Lady Diana Spencer on her wedding day in season 4 of 'The Crown'

The Crown S4 E3 real history: Diana’s struggles, the ‘G’ & ‘F’ bracelet, and a royal engagement