Forget Shakespeare’s lies: Macbeth was a good king who united Scotland
Val McDermid on how the ‘Scottish play’ twisted history – and why her new novel aims to set the record straight
![Laurence Olivier as Macbeth with Vivien Leigh as Lady Macbeth](https://cdn.statically.io/img/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/books/2024/07/19/TELEMMGLPICT000384964155_17213972740740_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqTSLB_C6FhJPe2LagB1gPYOR02onCnLnCOzyrYJZwEpU.jpeg?imwidth=350)
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Val McDermid on how the ‘Scottish play’ twisted history – and why her new novel aims to set the record straight
French police are investigating the suspected theft of a sword which, according to legend, had magical properties
This exhibition celebrates the long-sidelined spouses and defies their conventional reduction to little more than a memorable rhyme
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University accused of being ‘total drips’ over removal of phrase that has been coopted by US white supremacists
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Elite families in Anglo-Saxon England liquidated their assets in an early example of quantitative easing, a Cambridge University study finds
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Cross remained hidden in a ‘medieval virtual reality box’
Justine Firnhaber-Baker’s House of Lilies is a chronicle of one of medieval Europe’s most powerful dynasties, the back-stabbing Capetians
Research fellow got locked in bathroom of tower, which was once the home of 16th-century Dutch philosopher Desiderius Erasmus
Wars may evolve but what the military carries changes surprisingly little
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Canute's Candlemas visits to Ely inspired the young Benjamin Britten 900 years later
Luxury goods unearthed at cemetery dig in Cardiff reveal that ‘high-status activity such as feasting and drinking took place’
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The acclamation 'Christus vincit' performed the same function as an ancient Greek monogram standing for Christ the conqueror
Fire-breathing foe or scaly signs of good fortune — were legends surrounding these creatures inspired by real-life giant serpents?
The comedian’s trip through medieval history may pass at breakneck speed, but it’s an impressive blend of irreverence, accuracy and wit
First Tudor monarch now thought to have been born in medieval structure next door to tower that bears his name
Jonathan Sumption’s magisterial history of the Hundred Years War concludes with the detailed, judicious and far-sighted Volume Five