BBC History Magazine

“This month, Queen Elizabeth II is set to reach an unprecedented milestone as she becomes the first British monarch to celebrate her platinum jubilee. But is Britain’s longest-reigning sovereign also its greatest? We asked 12 historians to nominate t

Seemingly depicting ghostly figures, perhaps in negative, the image above is in fact evidence of an early sketch by Dutch artist Rembrandt of his famous 1642 work commonly known as The Night Watch – discovered beneath the painting itself. The complex

Writing in the New Statesman in December, historian and broadcaster David Olusoga (@DavidOlusoga) declared: “Historians should repeatedly point out that the ‘rewriting of history’ is not some act of professional misconduct but literally the job of pr

A US government inquiry into a 1955 killing that became a pivotal moment in the development of the nascent US civil rights movement has closed without issuing any charges. Fourteen-year-old Emmett Till was accused by a white woman, Carolyn Bryant, of

A row over bad wine spills over into violence It was St Scholastica Day in 1355 and Oxford’s students were in the mood to celebrate. Among them were Walter de Spryngeheuse and Roger de Chesterfield, who went for a drink at the Swindlestock Tavern on

The prince known as Llywelyn the Great was the most significant of Wales’ native rulers. He succeeded in unifying the Welsh and resisting the English as much through shrewd diplomacy as force. Before Llywelyn’s birth, Norman occupation had reduced Wa

Great-grandson of William the Conqueror, the young Henry came to the throne as the founder of a new dynasty from Angers on the Loire. It was named “Plantagenet” after the sprig of broom (plant de genet) worn as a badge by his father, Geoffrey, count

Edward (right), born in 1442, was the eldest surviving son of Richard, Duke of York. After his father’s death at the battle of Wakefield in 1460, he became the head of the House of York in the Wars of the Roses – the three-decade fight for the Englis

David I was medieval Scotland’s greatest ruler, and is a towering figure in British history. During a reign lasting 29 years, he redrew the political map of these islands and laid the foundations both of the Scottish state that endured for four centu

Henry VII may or may not be Britain’s greatest monarch but there’s one accolade he surely can claim: there can’t be another ruler who has been underestimated so consistently. Henry won his throne in a way unusual even among medieval monarchs, taking

It has been said that Henry VIII changed the heart, mind and face of Britain more than anyone or anything else between the Normar conquest and the industrial revolution. In the year of his accession, a Venetian accurately predicted: “For the future,

All other contenders step aside: Elizabeth I has taken the stage. As the younger, forgotten and – in some eyes – illegitimate daughter of Henry VIII, in her early years she had little prospect of ever inheriting the throne. It is one of history’s gre

As the platinum jubilee of Elizabeth II approaches, it is worth noting that her Stuart predecessor James VI & I enjoyed one of the longest British reigns – as king of Scotland for 58 years from 1567 until his death in 1625. The last 22 of those years

George III instituted an invention of genius: the limited constitutional monarchy that we enjoy today, and which provides a bulwark against megalomania and political extremism. When he came to the throne in 1760, the monarchy had enormous powers, esp

In June 1887, teeming crowds lined the streets outside Buckingham Palace to catch a glimpse of Queen Victoria riding in her carriage. What they saw was an elderly woman dressed in a black gown with white lace trimmings, a necklace of pearls around he

George V was an unexpected king for unexpected times. A second son, he found himself heir to the throne when his older brother, Eddy, died in 1892. Becoming king in 1910, after the death of his gregarious, high-living and popular father, Edward VII,

Have our experts got it right? Let us know your thoughts on our HistoryExtra Facebook and Twitter pages or email us via letters@historyextra.com The ideal of monarchy in Britain has never been a stable one. The expectations laid upon sovereigns have

Only months after decamping to the grandeur of Broadcasting House, the BBC celebrated another momentous step in its rise to international status. On Monday 19 December 1932, the Empire Service (now the World Service) was born, hurling its signal acro

Accompanies season two of The Rise of the Nazis on BBC Two On 22 June 1941 Germany and its allies launched the biggest land invasion in history. After an artillery barrage had opened up along a thousand-mile front, 3 million German troops, along with

It must surely be Edward Teach, who terrorised the seas of the British Atlantic world from 1716-18, towards the end of the so-called “Golden Age of Piracy”. He killed fewer people than other pirates, captured only one major ship, and did not plunder

In 1936, a group of archaeologists working at Maiden Castle, near Dorchester, made a grisly discovery. Scattered near the east gate of this ancient hillfort were at least 52 Iron Age skeletons, some with horrific injuries to the head, back and should

Occupying the uplands of what is now Shropshire, the Cornovii proxed difficult to govern, given the landscape and the dispersed nature of the population. The Romans established Wroxeter as their tribal capital. Covering a large area of what is now no

On a July evening in 1930, 10,000 people crowded into London’s Royal Albert Hall, hoping to catch a glimpse of their hero, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and perhaps even hear him speak. Sure enough, the celebrated author turned up right on time. Dressed in

A belief in spiritualism damaged the scientific reputation of the influential 19th-century naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, who pioneered a theory of evolution at the same time as Charles Darwin. Wallace wrote articles in defence of spiritualism and

Somewhere near the town of Longtown on the banks of the river Esk, in one of the last parcels of land to be disputed between Scotland and England before the Union of Crowns of 1603, is the supposed site of the battle of Arthuret. Nothing to do with K

On 11 June 2020, a statue in Bristol was damaged. But while the media debates continued to rage about the toppling of the figure of slave trader Edward Colston during a Black Lives Matter protest the previous week, the defacement of this bronze bust

Kingdom of Characters by Jing Tsu Penguin, 336 pages, £20 I remember my astonishment when I first saw a Chinese colleague using her QWERTY keyboard to write Chinese characters. Her speed was incredible. When she clicked on any letter, she initiated a

94 EXPLORE... Ancient House Museum, Thetford The late 19th century was a time of huge change in the US, particularly in those areas of the country undergoing industrialisation. Output boomed and, for a few ambitious and lucky souls, there were fortun

The programme features seven Holocaust survivors sitting for portrait artists. How did it come about? We were invited to make the documentary to accompany an existing Royal Collections project [the portraits will be displayed at the Queen’s Gallery],

Midway between the tourist hotspots of Cambridge and Norwich lies the Norfolk market town of Thetford. You might be tempted to drive past this unassuming little town, but I’d strongly encourage you to stop and visit. Stroll along Whitehart Street and

Join us from 14 February as we dig into the history and mystery of Stonehenge. It’s long been a subject of fascination, from the earliest recorded tourists (perhaps as far back as 2000 BC) to present-day archaeologists. We’ll explore what’s known abo

6 Member of a proto-Protestant movement initially led by Oxford theologian John Wycliffe (7) 8 Berlin prison where Rudolf Hess was held until his death in 1987 (7) 9 Eastern European city, centre of a Rus federation in the 9th–13th century (4) 10 In