The Bayeux Tapestry was created to justify William the Conqueror’s invasion of England – but its political message may have been outdated almost as soon as it was finished. As the embroidery goes on ...

For most people in 14th-century England, home meant a smoky, crowded hall where eating, working and sleeping all happened in ...

After becoming the first human to orbit Earth, Yuri Gagarin was transformed into a global celebrity and sent around the world as the smiling face of Soviet power. But what did the cosmonaut make of ...

More than two centuries before Richard III would be accused of killing his own nephews, the Princes in the Tower, another ...

When Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD 79, burying Pompeii, Herculaneum and surrounding settlements beneath ash, pumice and volcanic debris, many of those caught in the disaster seem to have been taken by ...

The annual solstices were so important to ancient Britons that they intentionally arranged some of the enormous stones at Stonehenge to align with the rising midsummer sun – and its winter equivalent.

On 14 April 1865, President Abraham Lincoln, fresh from steering the country through the Civil War, was enjoying a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington DC. During the performance, John Wilkes Booth, a ...

The people of ancient Rome lived in a wide range of housing, from grand urban mansions to crowded flats and makeshift dwellings attached to shops. Where and how someone lived depended on geography, ...

Few historical figures have been discussed and debated as much as Adolf Hitler. We have a wealth of primary source material available to us about his life, including his autobiographical manifesto ...

House of Guinness’s set-up may be billed as a Succession-style battle between four aristocratic siblings – but behind the (much-elaborated) story of the family lies an Ireland simmering with unrest ...

She broke the mould of queen consorts, wielding considerable power on behalf of – and sometimes in direct opposition to – her husband, and establishing an Anglo-Norman dynasty that would endure for ...

Duke William of Normandy, who would become known as William the Conqueror, arguably changed the course of English history more profoundly than any ruler before or since. Despite beginning life as a ...