The illegitimate daughter of Captain John Lindsay and Maria Belle, a slave of African origin, Dido Elizabeth Belle's story is ...

A Norman noblewoman, Mabel de Bellême became Countess of Shrewsbury through her marriage to Sir Roger de Montgomery. Shrewd ...

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 ...

We take single-sex public toilets for granted today. It is hard to believe that when public conveniences were first constructed, the vast majority of these toilets were just for men. Great Exhibition ...

During his reign as King of England, as well as Denmark and Norway, Cnut had succeeded in the mission which his father had endeavoured to achieve, to rule over a vast North Sea Empire, united by his ...

From the World Heritage Site of Hadrian’s Wall to the lesser known villas and amphitheatres that once dotted the land, Britain has a surprisingly large amount of Roman ruins that can still be visited ...

Common in the highlands, islands and lowlands of Scotland, the prickly purple thistle has been Scotland’s national emblem for centuries. The thistle, which grows to a height of five feet, has no ...

John Bull is an imaginary figure who is a personification of England, similar to the American ‘Uncle Sam’. He is shown in cartoons and caricatures as a prosperous farmer of the 18th century. John Bull ...

Sir Francis Drake – to the Spanish, a wayward pirate; to the English, a hero. He could be considered a morally dubious hero in many ways, perhaps even a villain, but was still incredibly influential ...

The word “clann” comes from the Gaelic and means children, and its members claimed kinship from the common ancestor whose name they bore, and even the poorest clansman considered themselves of nobler ...

When Jewish persecution is discussed by historians, the Holocaust is almost always mentioned. The Holocaust eradicated 6 million Jews, reducing Europe’s pre-war Jewish population of 9.5 million in ...

Visitors to King’s Lynn, the major town at the heart of West Norfolk, will discover a town rich in heritage and maritime history. The history of the town, coupled with the impressive Norfolk coastline ...