Queen Victoria's secret love affair

The 20th century saw the mafia go global. Crime groups, from Japan's Yakuza to southern Italy's Camorra, capitalised on political chaos and mass migration to spread their influence around the world. In this episode, Spencer Mizen and Ryan Gingeras trace the relentless rise of the ...  Show more

Thinker, feminist, sociologist, campaigner: 19th-century writer Harriet Martineau was a pioneer and a radical across a huge range of areas, but it's very likely you've never heard of her. Stuart Hobday tells Matt Elton about a figure who played a key role in shaping the modern wo ...  Show more

How did Anne Boleyn go from being a commoner to being the Queen of England?

As soon as she arrived in the Tudor court she stood out from the other beautiful women who were throwing themselves at Henry VIII, but made him wait for seven years before they eventually got ...

Henry VIII called her his 'rose without a thorn', but the teenage Catherine Howard was to fall out of favour less than 18 months after becoming Queen of England.

Out of all of Henry's wives it could be argued that the young queen, who was a cousin of Anne Boleyn, is ...

At the time, surely Kateryn Parr had her reservations about being Henry VIII's sixth wife?

Aside from being a tyrannical maniac who'd just beheaded his last wife, Catherine Howard, he was getting old, angry and his ulcerous leg was getting smelly.

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Meek and mild, or smart and scheming? Have we all been underestimating the third wife of Henry VIII?

Was Jane Seymour the meek and mild lady she's often portrayed as, or was she more smart and scheming than we give her credit for?

Although her time as queen ...