England

With a hey nonny-no - but the courtship of Elizabethan lads and lasses was not quite as buccolic as the madrigals suggest, as Eric Carlson explains.

What made medieval monks laugh? Edward Coleman looks at humour, holy men and the sub-texts of comment in 12th-century England.

Peter Atkins finds that though we might be considering toll roads, the Victorians were glad to get rid of them.

Robert Thorne discusses 19th-century London on show in Germany

Colin Richmond analyses the part played by the written (and spoken) word in shoring up popular allegiances to the rival dynasties

'Tis to be feared this threatening storm will not be allayed without some showers... of blood' – Chris Durston chronicles the rumours and fears of an England on the brink of fratricidal conflict.

Anne Laurence considers how the conflict between King and Parliament altered the occupations and preoccupations of England's women.

Keith Nurse explores the excavations of recently-discovered Roman remains

Richard Cavendish looks at all things Stuart in the month when Charles I lost his head.

Maurice Keen describes how, in the years around the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 Robin Hood emerged as the legendary hero of the common people of England.