THIS ISSUE’S CONTRIBUTORS

Jonathan Healey “The Civil Wars are endlessly

ROYAL RESIDENCES Secrets and scandals

Become an instant expert with our six-week course

WELCOME

APRIL 2025

An Islamic army lands in Gibraltar

27 APRIL AD 711

Apollo 13 faces catastrophe

The lives of three astronauts hang in the balance during their ill-fated lunar mission

A photo of the Loch Ness Monster is published… or is it?

The ‘Surgeon’s Photograph’ fuels a media frenzy

Sacagawea helps forge a path of discovery

An Indigenous teenager accompanies Lewis and Clark across America

“If the culture wars were to come to an end, historians would be delighted”

EXPERTS DEBATE HISTORY’S BIGGEST ISSUES

Marika Sherwood (1937–2025)

The pioneering historian, author and campaigner Marika Sherwood

“Why Elon Musk should take a lesson from Confucius”

MICHAEL WOOD ON… EPIC MEDIEVAL CHINESE VOYAGES FRAN

“Some say that the first Jews sailed to India on King Solomon’s ships”

HIDDEN HISTORIES KAVITA PURI on the long-standing but

THIS MONTH’S TOP PODCAST PICKS

Listen ad-free at historyextra.com/podcast or with ads wherever you get your podcasts

LETTERS

LETTER OF THE MONTH Evacuee memories Dan

Q&A

A selection of historical conundrums answered by experts

“We tend to take all of the prejudices of a previous era, frozen in aspic, and regurgitate them”

INTERVIEW / HALLIE RUBENHOLD

Shock and awe in the Renaissance

RENAISSANCE

ON THE PODCAST

The Renaissance

Trail of thought

RELIGION

Divided loyalties

RONALD HUT TON is impressed by a look at the lives of two men riven by the conflict between king and parliament

THE CLASSIC BOOK

Levi Roach on a groundbreaking look at medieval culture and history

Infectious material

MEDICINE

Charms and crosses

The Magic Books ALAMY by Anne Lawrence-Mathers Yale University

Shade stories

Pink: The History of a Colour by Michel Pastoureau

ENCOUNTERS

HISTORY COOKBOOK Easter simnel cake HISTORIC CITIES

Easter simnel cake

RECIPE

Beijing in five places

HISTORIC CITIES

PRIZE CROSSWORD

Across 1 Battle of ____ Hill, February 1881,

Andrei Sakharov

1921– 89

WE PROVED, WITH 99.999% CERTAINTY, THAT THE SKELETON IN THE CAR PARK WAS RICHARD III. HERE’S HOW

Turi King led the verification team that worked on Richard III’s rediscovered remains. Here, on the 10th anniversary of the king’s reburial service, she reveals how science finally solved a 500-year-old cold case

Robert Wedderburn Firebrand abolitionist

While most British radicals fought for the rights of the exploited white working class, one man saw such rights as entwined with those of enslaved black workers. RYAN HANLEY tells the story of the ‘notorious firebrand’ who campaigned against slavery

“Matchless monsters of the female sex”

Men committed most violent crimes in Tudor and Stuart England. But when women murdered, the press had a field day. Blessin Adams asks what drove society’s gleeful fascination with its “angels of death”

WHAT TO DO WITH THE DEAD?

Tens of thousands of British and German servicemen died on enemy soil during the two world wars. What happened to their remains, writes Tim Grady , tells us a great deal about the two nations’ evolving relationship after the conflicts

Was Charles I truly a tyrant?

THINK PIECE

FIVE THINGS YOU (PROBABLY) DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT… the history of pirates

Sophie Nibbs shines a light on the murky world of the bandits who marauded the high seas in the 17th and 18th centuries

Josephine Baker DANCER, ACTIVIST, SPY

Today she’s widely remembered as a risqué entertainer – yet she was also involved in many of the earth-shaking events of her era. On the 50th anniversary of Josephine Baker’s death, Anna Maria Barry tells the story of a true 20th-century icon

BOOKS

RENAISSANCE “If you want to understand why people