Hadley Meares

Why Queen Elizabeth I signed a death warrant to execute the rival royal cousin she'd never met.

Though their stories are sometimes overlooked, these women were instrumental in the fight for equal rights for African Americans.

Women around the world have fought against oppressive regimes, either with the pen, the podium or their very own fists.

Belva Lockwood not only ran for president—twice—she was also the first female lawyer to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Hundreds of people, including several university scientists, witnessed the flying blue-green lights in August 1951. One person even took photos.

Think royal births are a spectacle now? Marie Antoinette would beg to differ.

After the French Revolution, eight-year-old Louis XVII was taken to prison and never seen in public again.

The palace with more than 2,000 rooms featured elaborate gardens, fountains, a private zoo, roman-style baths and even 18th-century elevators.

Filthy residences forced European monarchs to constantly move their courts.

Inside the unhappy reign of Sisi, Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary.

European royals did not trust the portraits sent to them by other courts, so they commissioned their own.

Among the adventuresses: a swashbuckling pirate, a medieval crusader and pioneering space traveler.

Marriage to a royal consort has not always been the fairytale we believe it to be.

These striking images changed how rulers were seen—and not always for the better.

For centuries, people have had unusual fixations with new materials.

James I, Charles I and Charles II of the Stuart dynasty were known for their excesses.

Elizabeth I, for one, was known to drink from a unicorn horn cup, believing that if poison touched it, it would explode.

The idea was to show the royal family in their day-to-day lives. The results were mixed.

British aristocrats often went broke after royal visits.

Royal brothers and sisters have squabbled through the ages—often leading to war.