Introduced in the wake of the Norman Conquest, the murdrum fine was meant to protect Norman settlers from revenge killings.

Horses are instinctively wired to run from danger. So how did medieval armies train them to thunder towards enemy lines ...

In the early stages of the First World War, Brits and Germans came together on the frontlines to pause the fighting for ...

In an era when candidates were expected to remain silent, detached and above the chase for votes, James Garfield’s improvised ...

A seemingly simple question opens up difficult debates about ancient Roman beauty ideals and social hierarchy, and reveals ...

Introducing Life Lessons from History, packed with advice from the past to help us live better, happier, healthier, or more ...

The celebration of the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth concludes with a two-part adaptation of her first published novel. It tells the story of the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne, who ...

Two near-fatal attacks on Saladin by the Nizari Ismailis reveal a Middle Eastern landscape far more complex than the usual Crusader-versus-Muslim narrative – and show how close the Crusades came to ta ...

But beyond recounting the rise of Norman supremacy, what was the Bayeux Tapestry really for? Was it only an extraordinary work of propaganda, designed as a display of righteous power? Or was it ...

Cosimo de' Medici (later known as Cosimo the Elder) was, according to Pope Pius II, “king in all but name” of Florence. This was not entirely a compliment: like Pius's home city of Siena (a Tuscan ...