The charge of the light, battle illustration

Military history

Q&A: Where does the word ‘crack’, describing military units, originate?

The Black Prince's tomb in Canterbury Cathedral depicts Edward III's son as a resting warrior, a paragon of knightly virtue. The prince conceived the tomb's design himself but not everyone has bought into his favourable assessment of his life's achievements. (Photo by RDImages/Epics/Getty Images)

The Black Prince: hero or villain?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries by Jacques-Louis David

Napoleon's great cultural charade. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

"Pope Urban II’s address at the Council of Clermont, the moment that triggered the First Crusade, has gone down as perhaps the most influential speech in history," writes Sandbrook. (Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

A big day in history: The day Pope Urban II exhorted Christians to go on crusade. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Nelson mortally wounded at Trafalgar in 1805

Nelson: the unhappy admiral. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

British soldiers on the front of El Alamein. (Photo by Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)

El Alamein: The British empire's last hurrah. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A vintage map of Europe. One of the hardest things for small nations to accept is that they're not in control over their own destinies, says Mark Mazower. (Getty Images)

The LibraryA little history of the world: the importance of small states in global politics. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Nuclear bomb test. (OFF/AFP/Getty Images)

How Britain got the bomb. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Herbert 'Blondie' Hasler (left) pictured with Bill Sparks and Mary Lindell. It was "his ability to take ordinary men and give them the confidence and skills to do extraordinary things" that made him a hero, says Paddy Ashdown. (Photo by Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

My history hero: ‘Blondie’ Hasler (1914–87). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A relief showing Emperor Constantine's over Maxentius at the battle of Milvian Bridge. (Prisma/UIG/Getty Images)

A big day in history: “A cross of light” leads Constantine to victory. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

BBC History Magazine

Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom

First World War

The Great War

BBC History Magazine

The Last Highlander: Scotland’s Most Notorious Clan-Chief, Rebel and Double-Agent

Detail of a column showing Norman soldiers, c12th century. (CM Dixon/Print Collector/Getty Images)

In search of the Normans: who were they?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The White Tower, one of the oldest parts of the Tower of London complex, was built by William the Conqueror. (Getty Images)

Castles of the Conqueror

The battle of the Nile, fought at night in the Abu Qir Bay near Alexandria. (Art Media/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Second World War

Britain’s 10 most significant naval battles

Woodcutting depicting the beheading of Charles I. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Britain’s civil wars: the 15 key moments. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Industrial might: Blenheim bombers in production in England, late 1939. The Allies’ combined industrial strength proved too much for the Axis. (Getty Images)

Second World War

The LibraryThe world in flames

The Flight of Bonaparte from the Battle of Krasnoi, 1815. Artist: Sutherland, Thomas (1785-1838)

How Napoleon was humbled. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The charge of the Scots Greys at the battle of Waterloo, 18 June 1815, was immortalised in this famous painting of 1881 by Lady Elizabeth Butler (1846-1933). (Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Fighting Scots. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Plantation of Ulster: The British Colonisation of the North of Ireland in the 17th Century

A cast of a Roman warship carrying armed soldiers. (Photo By DEA / G. NIMATALLAH/De Agostini/Getty Images)

The Roman invasion: whose side were the Britons on?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

British prime minister Margaret Thatcher is portrayed as pirate in an Argentine newspaper from 30 April 1982.(Photo by Alain Nogues/Sygma via Getty Images)

Sir Max Hastings: Witness to the Falklands War. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Queen’s Corporal

'Tirpitz' hiding in a Norwegian fjord in 1942. “She outclassed anything in the British fleet,” says Patrick Bishop. (Getty Images)

The Second World War: sinking the Tirpitz. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A painting depicting the Duke of Wellington at the battle of Waterloo. "Wellington’s victories at Roliça and Vimeiro in 1808 were the first significant defeats inflicted upon the French emperor’s armies in Europe," says Saul David. (Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

The triumph of the redcoats. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Chris Patten, the last governor of colonial Hong Kong, is pictured here receiving the Union Jack flag shortly before Hong Kong was returned to China, ending over a century of British rule. (Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images)

The British empire: 10 big questions. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Book review - Napoleon

German scientists Dr Carl Eisenmann, Dr Mersch, Dr Trabat and Dr Stocklin. (Express/Getty Images)

The intelligence war for German scientists. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

BBC History Magazine

Britain’s Empire: Resistance, Repression and Revolt