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

THIS ISSUE’S CONTRIBUTORS

THREE THINGS I’VE LEARNED THIS MONTH

THIS MONTH IN HISTORY • NEWS COMMENT ANNIVERSARIES HIDDEN HISTORIES

Re-evaluating Cromwell • New research suggests that Oliver Cromwell was more tolerant of alternative religious beliefs than had previously been thought. ANNA WHITELOCK reports on the fall-out from the news

Origins of the modern herpes virus may lie in the Bronze Age

HISTORY IN THE NEWS • A selection of the stories hitting the history headlines

MICHAEL WOOD ON… • THE HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS BELIEF

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

WHY WE SHOULD REMEMBER… • The publication of Jane Eyre, introducing Charlotte Brontë’s unconventional heroine

HIDDEN HISTORIES • On a recent summer afternoon, two distant cousins sat together to work out their family histories and how they connected. They had never met before.

Fine collection

LETTERS

BBC History Magazine

When Richard rose again • Ten years ago a skeleton in a Leicester car park transformed our understanding of a medieval king, and turned him into a media sensation. Mike Pitts tells the remarkable story of the discovery of Richard III’s remains

WHAT WE LEARNED ABOUT RICHARD III • Five facts the excavation revealed about the medieval king

FLOATING HELL • Convicts experienced notoriously miserable conditions in Georgian and Victorian Britain – and inmates of prison hulks endured the harshest of these deprivations. ANNA McKAY reveals the horrors of these “wicked Noah’s arks”

PRISON HULKS: DAMNING STATISTICS

ABANDON SHIP! • Dramatic stories of escape attempts from prison hulks

HOW TO SURVIVE THE DARK AGES • The collapse of Roman rule in Britain left a vacuum that numerous powers competed to fill – but only a few realms endured. How did some thrive while others vanished or were vanquished? Thomas Williams offers six crucial survival tips for would-be rulers of early medieval kingdoms

The kingdoms that thrived in the Dark Ages • Our map shows important British realms in c600. Those in red remained in good shape by the mid-ninth century

THE RACE TO DECIP HER ANCIENT GYPT ‘SACRED SCRIPT • The discovery of the Rosetta Stone in 1799 breathed life into a quest long deemed impossible: the reading of Egyptian hieroglyphics. Toby Wilkinson tells the tale of the two rivals who raced to be first to crack the code

Q&A: EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHS • Toby Wilkinson answers key questions about the mysterious script

A QUICK GUIDE TO READING HIEROGLYPHICS • Exploring a section of religious text

Science’s global revolution • James Poskett introduces some brilliant thinkers who shatter the theory that, when it came to the scientific revolution of the 16th to 18th centuries, Europe was at the centre of the universe

Not-so lone geniuses • THE LESSER-KNOWN RESEARCHERS WHO AIDED THREE ICONS OF EUROPEAN SCIENCE

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

The stomach for the fight • In the Third Reich, food was not a personal matter but a way for Germans to show their patriotism and...