The History of England Magazine

Residents of Hampstead might not be too pleased to learn that their exclusive London village once housed more pigs than people, but this is just one of the fascinating insights to be gained from reading the Domesday Book…

The British Isles experienced extremely wet and stormy weather during the winter and spring of 1314/15. However this was not the first time that the countryside had been devastated by flooding…

She may have had the “body of a weak and feeble woman”… but what did she look like? Although lots of portraits exist of Elizabeth, she did not pose for many of them…

The Battle of Edgehill on October 23rd 1642 was the first battle of the English Civil War – and is reputed to be contested again and again by ghostly armies at the battle site…

It is Queen Victoria’s husband Albert who is normally credited with being the driving force behind the Great Exhibition of 1851, but it appears that just as much praise for organising this remarkable event should also be bestowed upon one Henry Cole…

The first roads in Britain were built by the Roman legions, which had their own surveyors, engineers and the equipment they needed for this type of construction work…

Shakespeare portrays Richard III as the villainous uncle who ordered the little princes put to death in order to secure his throne… but Richard wasn’t the only person who would benefit from their deaths…

East London’s riverside districts with their industrial buildings and warehouses, were the scene of many fires. In July 1794, an incident at Ratcliffe resulted in London’s biggest fire to take place between the Great Fire of 1666 and the Blitz of 1940.