BBC History Magazine

BBC History Magazine aims to shed new light on the past to help you make more sense of the world today. Fascinating stories from contributors are the leading experts in their fields, so whether they're exploring Ancient Egypt, Tudor England or the Second World War, you'll be reading the latest, most thought-provoking historical research. BBC History Magazine brings history to life with informative, lively and entertaining features written by the world's leading historians and journalists and is a captivating read for anyone who's interested in the past.

WELCOME MARCH 2023

THIS ISSUE'S CONTRIBUTORS

ANNIVERSARIES • HELEN CARR highlights events that took place in March in history

Who should have access to royal records? • Debates have raged in recent months about the royal family’s right to privacy. PHILIP MURPHY discusses changes in rules governing access to historical materials about the royals - and argues that it’s vital for political historians to see such documents

HISTORY NEWS IN BRIEF

MICHAEL WOOD ON… • THE RURAL AUTHOR RONALD BLYTHE

HIDDEN HISTORIES • KAVITA PURI explores lesser-known stories from our past

LETTERS

BBC History Magazine

The wife who survived THRIVED • Katherine Parr has long been cast as the queen who nursed an ailing Henry VIII through his final years. Yet, argues Lauren Mackay, there was a lot more to this scholar, role model and passionate religious reformer than that

ROLE MODEL, RELIGIOUS MENTOR, FRIEND IN NEED… • How Katherine became a guiding light to Henry VIII’s children

Tales of Troy, Hercules and a printer called Caxton • In 1473-74, William Caxton produced the first book ever printed in English. Lydia Zeldenrust reveals how one man's keen eye for a business opportunity transformed a nation's relationship with the written word

CAXTON'S SOUTHERN BIAS • How the London dialect became the dominant force in printed English

THE MEN WHO TRIED TO KILL A QUEEN • One monarch, seven would-be assassins and a storm of fury and media hype… BOB NICHOLSON considers what drove the multiple attempts to murder Victoria over the course of her reign

URBAN ANIMALS • City farms have been making green spaces accessible to communities in urban Britain for 50 years. Mike Collins traces the rise of these inner-city sanctuaries

Q&A • A selection of historical conundrums answered by experts

DID YOU KNOW…?

THE WRECK THAT ROCKED THE MONARCHY • In 1682, a warship carrying the future James II & VII sank off the Norfolk coast. Ruth Battersby Tooke, Benjamin Redding, Francesca Vanke and Claire Jowitt, curators of a new exhibition about the recently discovered wreck of the Gloucester, chronicle a disaster that shines a light on 17th-century power-politics

BACK FROM THE BED • Fascinating discoveries from the wreck of the Gloucester

Murder and mayhem in Georgian Britain • In 1734, an extraordinary book recounted – even celebrated – the lives of highwaymen, pirates and murderers. Sam Willis explores what this compendium reveals about attitudes to crime in the 18th century

David Ingram The man who hiked America • DEAN SNOW follows in the footsteps of an intrepid 16th-century sailor who tramped 3,600 miles between the coasts of Mexico and Canada - and survived to provide an account that informed early English attempts to colonise North America

"Mughal India was at the centre of global power, whereas England was very much a bit player" • NANDINI DAS talks to Rhiannon Davies about her new book chronicling the trials and tribulations of England’s disastrous first embassy in Mughal India

The other crusaders • NATASHA HODGSON commends a wide-ranging look at the experiences of women involved in the...