Military history

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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?

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

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 Library The world in flames

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

How Napoleon was humbled

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

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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?

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

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

A painting depicting the Duke of Wellington at the battle of Waterloo.

The triumph of the redcoats

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