History Today

Ottoman Empire

Heads Will Roll

What do you do if you're seventh in the line to the throne? Kill all other claimants, of course.

Gemma Masson
National Gallery

Tigris and Euphrates

The two rivers where civilisation began.

Rhys Griffiths
Opium

Not Just Smelling The Flowers

Opium has been known and used for more than 7,000 years. A brilliantly researched and wide-ranging study brings its history up to date.

Julie Peakman
Miscellanies

The Women Who Walked Into History

Faced with a crisis in her personal life, Sarah Stoddart Hazlitt found respite in long and often dangerous walks.

Kerri Andrews

Today's Featured Articles

Cardinal virtue: Thomas Wolsey, by Sampson Strong, 16th century. (Bridgeman Images)

From the Editor

Wolsey’s Own Accord

Projects for a peaceful Europe go back centuries. Occasionally, they succeed – for a while at least.

Paul Lay

Woman Rebel: Sanger and her eldest son, Stuart, in Japan, 1922.

Months Past

America's First Birth Control Clinic

A family planning clinic opened in New York on 16 October 1916. It lasted only a few days.

Richard Cavendish

Miscellanies

Name of Thrones

Royal naming strategies in medieval England.

Rachel Tod

From the Archive: Elizabethan Era

The Young John Dee

Elizabeth I’s court magician John Dee was also one of England’s most learned men

Katie Birkwood

Francis Drake, 1652. Courtesy University of California Libraries

Celebrity, Politics and Francis Drake

Drake’s exploits in the New World made him perfect material for the English gutter press.

Sara Bradley

St Margaret of York

The execution of Margaret Clitherow was considered gruesome, even by the standards of the time.

Peter Lake, Michael Questier

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Most Recent

Armistice celebrations in London, 11 November 1918.

Feature

When the Men Came Marching Home

Having survived the rigours of the Great War, soldiers faced the return to civilian life. For some, it presented an even greater challenge.

Winfarthing pendant, early seventh century, found in a woman's grave in Norfolk, 2015.

Feature

Wynflæd’s Will

Often lost behind stories of kings, queens, bishops and saints, what was life like for an Anglo-Saxon woman below the upper ranks of society?

Feature

Lenin: The Machiavellian Marxist

The leader of the Soviet Revolution was an armed prophet who adopted the characteristics of the lion and the fox.

View of Ancient Babylon, Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, 1721.

National Gallery

National Gallery: Tigris and Euphrates

The two rivers where civilisation began.

On The Spot

On The Spot: Emily Jones

‘Ideas don’t do things; people do.’

Miscellanies

The Women Who Walked Into History

Faced with a crisis in her personal life and an uncertain future, Sarah Stoddart Hazlitt found respite in long, arduous and often dangerous walks. Countless women have followed in her footsteps.