“kingship was often portrayed as ancient and natural but, in reality, it started with thieving thuggery”

Dominic Sandbrook is speaking about Gordon of Khartoum. He lowers his voice to a reverent whisper, leans into his microphone and tells me of “an imperial hero, an adventurer, who ended his days on the

this story: Edgar Ætheling, Edward’s great-nephew. We know, of course, which one of these contenders held the crown in his possession at the end of the year. What is less certain is who was the most d

Somehow, it isn’t hard to imagine the scene of battle here, even on a sultry July morning when only the distant growl of a motorbike interrupts the crooning of collared doves. Perhaps it is the quiet.

Richmond Palace, 22 March 1603. Elizabeth I – the self-proclaimed Virgin Queen who had ruled England for 44 years, seeing off the Armada, healing religious divisions and creating a court so magnificen

At 16, I was doing my first year of A levels at a minor public school in Oxfordshire. I’d done pretty well in my GCSEs – I got one ‘B’, which disappointed me, but it was biology and I don’t feel it’s

Danny Bird How did you go about uncovering women’s central – and obscured – role in economic history? Victoria Bateman I’ve taught economic history for 20 years, and I wanted to bring together the man