Was the Black Death really such a disaster? The brutality of the Black Death was matched only by the speed of its rampage across medieval Europe. One third of the English population was wiped out. The ...

The followers of Owen Glendower, the medieval Welsh nationalist leader who disappeared in around 1415, firmly believed that should Wales be in any danger from the English, he would return and free ...

Worshipped by the Druids for its longevity, the Common Yew is typically found in churchyards, its soft wood used over ...

The Tudor Dynasty of England, spanning from the late fifteenth century into the early seventeenth century, was filled with many colorful monarchs who impacted the country politically, economically, ...

In January 1899 Barnum and Bailey’s ‘Greatest Show on Earth’ was a few weeks into its second winter season at London’s Olympia when something extraordinary happened. The performers in the so-called ...

On the 12th May 1820 Florence Nightingale was born. A young woman born into a rich family, Florence would go on to have an enormous impact as a nurse serving during the Crimean War. Famed as the “Lady ...

One of the most audacious rogues in history was Colonel Blood, known as the ‘Man who stole the Crown Jewels’. Thomas Blood was an Irishman, born in County Meath in 1618, the son of a prosperous ...

Important events of 1915, the second year of the First World War, including the first German Zeppelin raid on England, the Gallipoli Campaign and the Battle of Loos. 4 Feb The Germans declare a ...

“Executions are so much a part of British history that it is almost impossible for many excellent people to think of a future without them” – Viscount Templewood, In the Shadow of the Gallows (1951) ...

Every nation has its own ‘Patron Saint’ who in times of great peril is called upon to help save the country from its enemies. St David is the patron saint of Wales, St Andrew of Scotland and St ...

King James I succeeded the last Tudor monarch, Elizabeth I, becoming the first Stuart king of England. He had already reigned as King James VI of Scotland for the last thirty-six years. Mary Queen of ...

Castles and fortified houses can be found all over Britain. Impressive, oppressive, dramatic, romantic: who built these castles, and why? Many fortified sites started off as Bronze or Iron Age forts, ...