Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

British History

A satellite view of a region of Buckingham, England where 42 skeletons were recently unearthed on a former farm situated near a cemetery (center)

Cool Finds

U.K. Developers Unearth 42 Bizarrely Buried Skeletons

The individuals, buried with their hands tied behind their backs, may be executed Anglo-Saxon prisoners or casualties of the English Civil War

Dickens’ preferred place of burial—his Plan A—was “in the small graveyard under Rochester Castle wall, or in the little churches of Cobham or Shorne,” which were all near his country home.

Even in Death, Charles Dickens Left Behind a Riveting Tale of Deceit

New research unravels the scheme to bury the Victorian writer in Westminster Abbey—against his wishes

Churchill painted Lake Scene at Norfolk with bright colors inspired by Impressionists like Monet sometime in the 1930s.

See Winston Churchill’s Little-Known Art

Best known for serving as Britain’s prime minister during World War II, Churchill was also an amateur painter and avid writer

The vest said to have been worn by Charles I at his execution on January 30, 1649

See Charles I’s Stained Execution Shirt

The vest will feature in an upcoming exhibition on London’s long and gruesome history of public killings

Researchers conducting excavations near Bath Abbey have uncovered the remains of an apse dated to between the late eighth and late tenth centuries.

Cool Finds

Newly Unearthed Anglo-Saxon Monastery May Have Hosted England’s First Coronation

In the millennia since Edgar the Peaceful’s 973 coronation, the content of the royal ceremony has remained largely the same

The tangled history of Scottish independence features such figures as William Wallace, Bonnie Prince Charlie, and Mary, Queen of Scots.

A Not-So-Brief History of Scottish Independence

This primer covers Scottish sovereignty from the Roman era to the Jacobite revolts, the 2014 referendum and Brexit

The cesspit under the Somerset House is nearly 15 feet deep and contained almost 100 artifacts.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Unearth Trove of Medieval Artifacts in London Cesspit

The precursor to the toilet was probably an easy place to throw away—or lose—small objects

Marcus Gheeraerts II, Portrait of a Woman in Red, 1620

The Evolution of Pregnancy Portraits, From Tudor England to Beyoncé

A new show at the Foundling Museum in London highlights artists’ depictions of pregnant women over the past 500 years

Charles, the son and grandson of American presidents, carved out a second home in England, succeeding in his main diplomatic mission: securing British neutrality in the Civil War.

The American Scion Who Secured British Neutrality in the U.S. Civil War

The journal pages of Charles Francis Adams, the son of one president and the grandson of another, illuminate the life and politics of Victorian England

The high-status 16th-century woman (right) appears to have suffered from leprosy, a disfiguring disease that likely left its mark on her skin, tissues and bone.

Artists Reconstruct Centuries-Old Faces of Early Edinburgh Residents

Skulls uncovered beneath St. Giles’ Cathedral gave faces to a 12th-century man and a 16th-century woman

The Heslington brain, revealed intact within a 2,600-year-old skull unearthed near modern day York, England

New Research

Super Resilient Protein Structures Preserved a Chunk of Brain for 2,600 Years

After death, most brains decompose within months or years. This one lasted millennia

Most of the graves were lined with stone curbs and closed with slabs.

Cool Finds

High-Status Roman Burials Found in Britain

The discovery provides insight on how Iron Age Britons adopted the Roman lifestyle

John Addington Symonds, whose 1873 essay "A Problem in Greek Ethics" helped lay the foundation for the modern gay rights movement

Cool Finds

Researchers Recover an Early Copy of a 19th-Century Gay Rights Essay

This once-lost copy of “A Problem in Greek Ethics” is only the sixth of its kind

Featuring Richard III, Elizabeth I, Queen Victoria, George III and more

Ten Things We’ve Learned About Britain’s Monarchs in the Past Ten Years

From Richard III to Mary, Queen of Scots, and George III, these were the royal revelations detailed during the 2010s

Some of the Callanish stones, which sit atop the Isle of Lewis in Scotland

Massive Lightning Strike May Have Inspired This Scottish Stone Circle

New geophysical evidence points to ancient burn marks that could have coincided with the building of Scotland’s Callanish standing stones

Researchers analyzed 75,688 convict tattoos cataloged in the Digital Panopticon database.

The Victorian Tattooing Craze Started With Convicts and Spread to the Royal Family

A new series of data visualizations offers insights on the practice’s historical significance

The Pompeiian sorceress' kit contained about 100 different objects.

Cool Finds

Twelve Fascinating Finds Revealed in 2019

The list includes a sorceress’ kit, a forgotten settlement, a Renaissance masterpiece and a 1,700-year-old egg

Presenting Smithsonian magazine's top ten stories of 2019

Our Top Ten Stories of 2019

From a 16-million-year-old tree to Confederate soldiers’ diaries, voracious snakes and England’s warrior king, these were the most-read stories of 2019

Urquhart Castle, which sits beside Loch Ness in the Highlands of Scotland

Job Hunting? How About Working at a Stunning Scottish Castle?

Even after centuries in ruins, castles still need some TLC—and, perhaps, you?

The film opens on Christmas Day.

Based on a True Story

The True History Behind the ‘1917’ Movie

A story shared by director Sam Mendes’ grandfather, a veteran of the Western Front, inspired the new World War I film

Page 40 of 64