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 ...

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 ...

This restrictive and demure line is typical of the early Victorian period 1837 – 50. The lady wears a dress with a long, tight, pointed bodice and full skirt supported on many petticoats. The sleeves ...

To the writer and diarist John Evelyn, she was ‘the curse of the nation’. To the Bishop of Salisbury, she was ‘a woman of great beauty, enormously vivacious and ravenous; foolish but imperious’. To ...

Cotton, a valuable raw material and a mainstay of the textile industry, has been around for centuries and remains one of the most crucial resources to this day. Cotton has been used by humans as far ...

Born around 1068, very little is known of Henry’s early life: as the youngest son of William the Conqueror he had never expected to be king. Inheriting the throne from his eldest brother William II, ...

Among many other events, July saw the Second Anglo-Dutch War (pictured above) ends with the peace of Breda. The Dutch acknowledge the loss of Delaware and New Jersey, New Amsterdam is renamed New York ...

Edward I, known by many names including, ‘Edward Longshanks’, ‘Hammer of the Scots’ and ‘English Justinian’, reigned as King of England from 1272 until 1307. Edward I was born in June 1239 at the ...