Illustration of a couple

Sex and love

Victorian family life | HistoryExtra Academy video lecture. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Living in sin: unmarried relationships in Victorian Britain. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

How to celebrate a Victorian wedding. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

American actress Charlotte Cushman and Matilda Hayes. (Image by Alamy)

How Georgian and Victorian same-sex couples co-opted marital traditions and made them their own. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Medieval couple

General History

QuizHow much do you know about the history of sex?

Rune stone. (Photo by Getty Images)

Reading the runes: what we can learn about everyday life in the Viking Age. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A cup depicting a male couple making love

The boy that emperor Nero made his ‘wife’: what the tragedy of the castrated Sporus tells us about homosexuality in ancient Rome

Portrait of King Edward VII

King Edward VII’s love chairHow did Dirty Bertie’s siège d’amour actually work?

Jason Okundaye (Photo by Damien McFadden)

Jason Okundaye on the Black gay community and its tensions: “The movement has always been a broad church”. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Video podcastHappily ever after? Love and marriage in Austen’s era. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Luke Newton as Colin Bridgerton, Nicola Coughlan as Penelope Featherington

Bridgerton: the real history explained

A 19th-century portrait of Lady Caroline Lamb, Anglo-Irish aristocrat, novelist and lover of Lord Byron, by English painter Thomas Phillips (Photo by Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo)

Lady Caroline Lamb: Antonia Fraser on a rule-breaking aristocrat. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Painting of Lord Byron and his Muse

“Mad, bad and dangerous to know”: the scandalous life of Lord Byron

General History

Love and lust: 7 of the most shocking romantic royal scandals from British history

Lothar II vs Theutberga: a marriage scandal that shook the ninth century. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

From whipping horses to royal love chairs: the lewd yet luxurious history of high-end erotic furniture. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

James VI and I and his favourites, Robert Carr and George Villiers

James VI and I and his favourites: what were their relationships like?

Happily ever after? Love and marriage in Austen's era. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Video podcastLove: a weird & wonderful history. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

An image depicting St Valentine

Saint ValentineWho was the patron saint of love and lovers?

Love: a weird & wonderful history. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A Regency parson officiates at a wedding ceremony in a country church, 1820

How to survive a Regency marriage. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The marriage of Napoleon Bonaparte to Habsburg Archduchess Marie-Louise

Napoleon’s other wife: who was Habsburg Archduchess Marie-Louise?

Joséphine de Beauharnais

Joséphine de Beauharnais: how Napoleon's muse became empress of France

Diana and Charles in Canada, 1986

Charles and Diana: a history of their marriage

Portrait of Elizabeth Linley

8 scandals that shocked Georgian Britain

Alicia von Rittberg as Princess Elizabeth in Becoming Elizabeth

Becoming ElizabethThe real history behind the new Tudor drama

Messalina: sex, slander & scandal in imperial Rome. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Julius Caesar meets Cleopatra in this 18th-century painting

Cleopatra, Julius Caesar and Mark Antony: how the last pharaoh's love affairs shaped Ancient Egypt's fate

Composite image of depictions of Queen Cleopatra

The face of Cleopatra: what did she look like, and was she really so beautiful?