British prime minister Neville Chamberlain in 1938 with his ‘piece of paper’ ensuring peace in Europe.
Shawshots / Alamy Stock Photo
The Post’s editor, Arthur Mann, withstood extreme pressure to fall in with orthodox political thinking over appeasement with Nazi Germany.
The impeachment trial of Warren Hastings in 1788.
Library of Congress
In the early 19th century, the British – who had invented impeachment centuries before – decided it no longer served its purpose. Instead, they found a more effective way to handle a bad leader.
‘Bridgerton’ tells the story of the courtship and marriage of Daphne Bridgerton and Simon Basset, Duke of Hastings.
( Liam Daniel/Netflix)
‘Bridgerton’ alludes to and obscures social, racial and political tensions in England’s Regency era, the extraordinary decade that marks the dawn of the modern world.
Capture of William Joyce (‘Lord Haw-Haw’) in Germany in 1945.
Bert Hardy, No 5 Army Film & Photographic Unit/IWM
In the early days of the second world war, a Nazi propagandist broadcasting to England built up a large following.
Still image from the 1940 propaganda film ‘Christmas Under Fire’ produced by the Crown Film Unit.
BFI Archive
Despite rationing and the Blitz, Christmas on the domestic front in 1940 was cheerful and optimistic.
February 1969 afforded a spot of skiing for Nottingham residents.
Photographer: Nottingham Post, courtesy: Nottingham Local Studies photographic collection
Food shortages, festivities and far-off fighting – Britain’s coldest winters were among its most memorable.
By the 17th century, wealthy Britons were already experiencing the delights of expensive sugar confections.
Wikimedia Commons
The story of the growth of Britain’s sugar trade can tell us a lot about the development of capitalism and the slave trade.
Overweening ambition: George Villiers, first Duke of Buckingham.
Peter Paul Rubens
Impeachment was a common political tool in early modern England, but its use lapsed 20 years after it was adopted in the US constitution.
PA archive
The Commonwealth’s ‘golden age’ wasn’t entirely dazzling.
In happier times: Stanley Baldwin (r) in August 1923, months before the December election.
PA Archive
When Stanley Baldwin called an election in December 1923, the outcome was unintended, unexpected and enduring.
A satirical photograph from 1901, where men’s and women’s dress and jobs are switched.
Underwood & Underwood/Wikimedia Commons.
For most of the Victorian era, people thought it was normal for men and women to be treated differently, and judged by different standards.
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson shakes hands with Queen Elizabeth II.
Victoria Jones/Pool via AP
The U.K. prime minister sought to suppress Parliamentary opponents, saying he – not they – represents the will of the British people. It put Queen Elizabeth II in a real bind.
EPA
No one is saying she has done a stellar job, but other prime ministers have made mistakes like May.
EPA/Will Oliver
It’s easy, now, to think of this as Theresa May’s story – but Thatcher, Blair and Cameron all played their part.
Aaron Chown/PA Wire
Lessons from the British 19th century protests over electoral reform about the significance of crowd sizes.
Sarah Churchill was an adroit investor and savvy political operative.
Government Art Collection
While the film introduces viewers to women who were important political figures in British history, it doesn’t quite capture just how much power and influence these women actually wielded.
The Famine Memorial in Dublin, by sculptor Rowan Gillespie.
Ron Cogswell
The famine caused a million deaths and scarred the national psyche for generations. How do you even start to try and represent that in film literature, or art?
Sill from Peterloo.
Cornerstone Films
As a left-wing rallying cry, this account of the 1819 massacre in Manchester fails to rouse the inner revolutionary.
What happens next?
Destruction from The Course of Empire by Thomas Cole, 1836, via Wikimedia.
Once Britain slipped away from the Roman Empire in the early 5th century, signs of Roman life began to disappear.
You never know …
EPA-EFE/Neil Hall
At least one second daughter of a second son of the British monarch has ended up on the throne in her own right.