History Extra

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 DECEMBER 2026

THREE THINGS THAT CAUGHT MY EYE

THIS ISSUE'S CONTRIBUTORS

ANNIVERSARIES • DANNY BIRD highlights events that took place in December in history

“International justice has always been contentious. Rejecting tribunals isn't new” • How should we prosecute those who perpetrate war crimes? This is a challenge that the global community has confronted since the end of the First World War – with, as historian DEVIN PENDAS tells Danny Bird, mixed results

MICHAEL WOOD ON… • A MYSTERIOUS ANCIENT CIVILISATION

Alfred the Great triumphed through peace as well as war • Confronted by an enemy who had threatened to take his land – and his life – King Alfred of Wessex chose to forgive his defeated adversary

The Allies overcame Burma's harsh conditions to beat Japan • In January 1945, British commandos and Indian troops battled to cut a vital Japanese route using lessons from their earlier disastrous retreat

Rome's mythical kings personified its early history • The seven monarchs said to have defined the ancient superpower may not have been real – but they reveal core truths about its origins

HIDDEN HISTORIES • KAVITA PURI on the enduring power of graffiti

Deluge of complaints

History Extra

THE ARCHDUKE AND THE ASSASSIN • Was Archduke Franz Ferdinand truly a tragic ‘prince of peace’? Should Gavrilo Princip be remembered as a reckless killer? More than a century after these two men were united by one Earthshattering event on the streets of Sarajevo, Annika Mombauer asks if it's time we reassess their reputations

Blood along the border • As the 13th century drew to a close, tensions along the English-Scottish frontier erupted into conflict when Edward I's invasion sparked a cycle of brutal raids. Helen Carr explores attacks that “surpassed in cruelty all the fury of the heathen”

THE RISE OF THE BORDER REIVERS • Marauding clans unleashed bloodshed, blackmail and ballads

What was the biggest fashion disaster in history? • Our team of historians, broadcasters and authors pick out the past's greatest sartorial missteps

KING UNDER SIEGE • Henry Tudor's stunning victory at Bosworth won him the English crown – but also, writes Sean Cunningham, condemned him to a life dogged by conspiracies, rebellions and suffocating paranoia

TIMELINE • Henry VII's rollercoaster life

Why we should celebrate Britain's history • Critics like to cast Britain as a global villain. Yet a truly honest, rational assessment of the facts can only lead to a more positive conclusion

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

Lands of make believe? • Gulliver's Travels, a picaresque yarn of unknown countries and bizarre peoples, has become a literary classic. But as Robert Hume reveals, behind Jonathan Swift's fantasy lay a thinly veiled attack on the Georgian political elite

HOT TAKES • Three more Georgian novels with subversive political subtexts

All is fair in love and war • RONALD HUTTON explains why goddesses embodying the dual forces of sex and violence are found across the ancient world

HUNGARY'S FREEDOM FIGHT • Seventy years ago,...