Painting of Louis VIII and Blanche of Castille

Kings and queens

Eleanor of Aquitaine: myth and reality

A portrait of Louis XIV in 1701.

From musketeers to Macron: 10 remarkable facts about the Sun King, Louis XIV

Queen Elizabeth I

"All unperfect and incorrect”: Tracy Borman on the discovery of an Elizabethan gem

Lord Mountbatten at a desk

Lord Mountbatten: Did Prince Philip’s uncle attempt to lead a coup against Harold Wilson’s government?

The Mountbattens: success and scandal

A portrait of Isabella I of Castile. (Photo by PHAS/UIG via Getty Images)

Isabella I of Castile: Europe’s greatest queen?

The queen's visit to the Welsh village of Aberfan

“No match for reality”: the missing history in The Crown series three

The 1969 documentary was made amid a feeling that there was an increasing awareness of a need to ‘sell’ the monarchy to the people, writes historian Sarah Gristwood. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

‘Royal Family’: the fly-on-the-wall documentary the Palace doesn’t want you to see

Queen Elizabeth II invests her eldest son, Prince Charles

Charles, The Prince of Wales’s 1969 investiture at Caernarfon Castle, 50 years on

Charles I's great weakness was that he made a strict distinction between his role as king, in which he could not compromise, and his personal role, which was entirely pleasant and courteous, says Sean Lang. (Photo by Imagno/Getty Images)

8 of the nicest kings in history

The newly crowned Queen Elizabeth II

Why has the British monarchy survived?

Mary I: the forgotten trailblazer

The King: Henry V on film

Agincourt was one of the major battles of the Hundred Years' War.

Agincourt: what really happened

Timothée Chalamet as Prince Hal

“It’s hard to square Prince Hal’s pacifism with what we know about Henry V”: a historian’s review of The King

Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II) and her fiance, Philip Mountbatten at Buckingham Palace, after their engagement was announced, 10th July 1947. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Prince Philip as consort: a life of duty and devotion

A portrait of Henry V of England. The Treaty if Troyes, signed in 1420, saw Henry named Charles's regent; by marrying the latter's daughter, Katherine, Henry secured his position as heir to the throne. (Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

A wayward prince? King Henry V's misspent youth

Portrait of Henry V

Q&AWhy is Henry V's portrait in profile?

Figure of Tutankhamun

In pictures: the glittering treasures of Tutankhamun

Portrait of King Henry V. (Photo by Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

Henry V: 5 facts you might not know about the king's softer side

Historian Nichola Tallis

“Margaret Beaufort wielded enormous power. She was a queen in all but name”: Nicola Tallis on the mother of the Tudors

Tutankhamun's blue and gold funerary mask

Tutankhamun unmasked: 7 intriguing truths about the pharaoh and his treasures

A depiction of a 13th-century parliament, sitting under Edward I. The Good Parliament of 1376, during the reign of Edward III, sowed the seeds for discontent that was to come.

The Good Parliament of 1376: Crown v Commons

Princess Margaret and her husband, Lord Snowdon, in San Francisco during a visit to America, November 1965. (Photo by Harry Benson/Express/Getty Images)

“Cheap men and expensive bottles”: Princess Margaret’s love affairs

James VI and I depicted in Parliament, c1605

Queen Elizabeth I’s ‘Golden Speech’ and 5 more key moments in the history of crown and parliament

Richard III, anonymous painting around 1500. (Photo by Alamy)

The house of York

Queen of hearts: When Catherine's husband Tsar Peter III alienated his people, they instead turned to his wife, and she was proclaimed the rightful ruler.

General Early Modern

Catherine the Great: your guide to the famed Empress of Russia

Portrait of Marie Antoinette in deep mourning, while in prison

The final days of Marie Antoinette

1651, Charles Prince of Wales (1630 - 1685) (later King Charles II of England) meets Sir Henry Lee near Oxford during the Civil War, while escaping after the Battle of Worcester.

How Charles II put Britain back together after the Civil War

War criminal? William the Conqueror shown on horseback in the Bayeux Tapestry. The king's Harrying of the North was a military success but a human catastrophe – one that even appalled chroniclers traditionally sympathetic to the Norman regime. (Photo by Bridgeman)

Was William the Conqueror a war criminal? The brutal story of the Harrying of the North