William the Conqueror famously defeated King Harold at the battle of Hastings in 1066. But in order to achieve this victory, he first had to get his a...

The Black Death unquestionably wrought a horrific death toll in the mid-14th century, but did it also sweep in social and cultural changes that eventu...

The first half of the 19th century witnessed the rise of an extraordinary working-class campaign for political reform: Chartism. What made this moveme...

Before being scattered across different kingdoms, Catherine de’ Medici, Elisabeth de Valois and Mary, Queen of Scots spent many years of their formati...

Catherine Howard was a teenaged bride who captivated King Henry VIII, but was brought down by secrets from her past that refused to remain buried. In ...

Ramesses II is the only pharaoh in history to be known as ‘the great’, but does he deserve that title? Was he the pharaoh in the Exodus story? And was...

Look at a Tudor family portrait, and you’ll often find children depicted like miniature adults, standing confidently alongside their parents in their ...

Was Richard I homosexual, and would it matter if he was? Although he was known to have shared a bed with the King of France, according to Dr Gabrielle...

It was the decade that saw the fall of the Soviet Union, the rise of Tony Blair and the landmark Good Friday Agreement. But what was behind the landsl...

The story of East Germany has been largely told in the context of Cold War geopolitics. But while the country may have been an ideological battlegroun...