February 2021

Articles from the February 2021 issue of BBC History Magazine

A mother receives her newborn baby in a c1490 text written for Henry VII. Childbirth in the Middle Ages exposed both mother and child to great peril but, writes Elma Brenner, midwives had the expertise to intervene when complications arose. (Photo by Bridgeman)

Medieval

The medieval childbirth guide: 6 tips for pregnant mothers in the Middle Ages

Author and biographer Max Adams (Photo by Alamy)

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Max AdamsBritain in the centuries after the Romans: “You can think of this era as a black hole into which our history tumbles”. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Dark side of fashion: a 1910 portrait of a woman wearing a hat adorned with ostrich plumes and a stuffed bird. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, owning hats like this was a sign of status for many women. (Photo by ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

Victorian

A hatful of horror: the Victorian headwear craze that led to mass slaughter

A c1520–40 portrait of Henry VI

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The miraculous afterlife of Henry VI. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A c1638 oil painting of Katherine Howard, Lady Aubigny

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History heroJulia Donaldson chooses Katherine Howard, Lady Aubigny (d1650). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Volunteers shovel sand in Fulham in 1941, filling bags used to protect windows from bomb blasts. Our clichés of the Blitz don’t tell the whole story, writes Lucy Worsley. (Photo by Mary Evans)

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Lucy Worsley on Blitz Spirit: the courageous stories of six Londoners. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

This image from the Nibelungenlied manuscript shows Pilgrim welcoming Kriemhild, a fictional character described as his neice in the text (Photo by Alamy)

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The forged texts of the Middle Ages: why Europe's holy men turned to counterfeiting. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The ruins of the once magnificent Roche Abbey

Tudor

The dissolution of the monasteries: mindless violence or planned precision?

The Sutton Hoo excavations are the focus of a new film, 'The Dig'. Carey Mulligan stars as Edith Pretty, and Ralph Fiennes portrays Basil Brown

Second World War

The Dig: the real history of the remarkable Sutton Hoo excavation