Medieval

The recent resignation of Pope Benedict XVI has given media commentators a gratefully received excuse to trot out the list of bad, weird and notorious popes of the past. Near the top, along with (the

Today marks the start of the 28th Jorvik Viking festival: a week of Viking-themed activities (well, Viking-lite, since pillaging and rapine is thankfully excluded by Health and Safety), all focused on the Jorvik Viking Centre. Renowned

History will tell us whether there is more to Benedict XVI's abdication than Monday’s Vatican press statement about his advanced age and deteriorating strength. In the meantime, it is the novelty of the move that

Introduction, by Caroline Pennock It's been a pretty hectic week, all in all. What with the launch of the History Matters blog and the not-Maya-apocalypse, I've been kept rather busy explaining to people that no,

Imagining the end of the world is one of humanity’s most perverse pleasures. For decades, cinema-goers have been treated to apocalypse by rogue planet, asteroid, earth’s core overheating, earth’s core stopping, climate-changing super-storm, melting polar