The Mary Rose, the flagship of Henry VIII found on the ocean floor off the south coast of England, may once again change English history. Scientists studying cannonballs discovered on the ship have found them to be armor-piercing, a technology believed to have been created in the 18th century. (photos)

William Shakespeare may have been the world's greatest writer, but he routinely failed to pay his taxes. This is the conclusion of a new study by scholars from Aberystwyth University which shows that Shakespeare was "repeatedly prosecuted and fined for illegally hoarding food, and threatened with jail for failing to pay his taxes."

Centuries-old Warwick Castle has revealed some new secrets. Time Team presenter Tony Robinson was among the first to see four new rooms  opened to visitors as part of Warwick Castle Unlocked. (video)

Four hundred years after his death, facial reconstructionists have revealed the face of France's 'Good King Henri IV' whose mummifed head is believed to have been discovered in an attic in 2008.

Cannonballs recovered from the Mary Rose wreck in England have been shown to contain iron cores, allowing the cannons to punch the shot through enemy vessels.

Early in the 5th century, the Romans departed from Britain, leaving behind roads, artifacts, walls, and something else. A new DNA study shows that up to 4 million British men carry Italian genetics, and of that, one million probably originate with the Romans.

The 1513 document calls for Machiavelli's arrest, to be proclaimed by the town crier.

Wearing the "wrong clothes" helped experts decide that the portrait wasn't of Henry VIII's last wife but was of his first.

Experts are investigating the possibility that a copper-alloy boar mount, discovered near the Thames River in London, might have belonged to King Richard III. (photo)

Scientists from the University of Swansea have concluded that among those lost with the sinking of the Mary Rose, King Henry VIII's flagship, in 1545, were elite longbowmen. The conclusion was made after the study of over 100 skeletons found on the remains of the ship.

A 6th-7th century skeleton, discovered in 1959 in the town of Southwell, Notts, England, has been classified as a "deviant burial" by Matthew Beresford, of Southwell Archaeology.

The medieval surnames of England are disappearing. That means no more Bythewoods, Pauncefoots or Foothead, according to Debbie Kennett of the Guild of One-Name Studies, a group dedicated to investigating the origins and heritage of surnames.

Stirling Council archaeologist Murray Cook has made an unusual request of the Central Scotland Police headquarters at Randolphfield, Stirling to allow experts to search the police grounds for evidence of the location of the Battle of Bannockburn.

Long to own a real piece of English history? The Kirklees Estate, near Halifax, West Yorkshire, purported burial place of Robin Hood, is for sale for something over UK£7 million. The site includes several farmhouses, 750 acres of farmland and woods, and a medieval Cistercian priory.

Scientists from Oxford University have determined the diet of sailors aboard the Mary Rose, based on the study of 80 skeletons from the Royal Naval Hospital, as well as the shipwreck. Their report has been published in the American Journal of Phsyical Anthropology.

Over the past 18 months, the art world has held its collective breath to see the results of the Louvre's restoration of Leonardo da Vinci's last work The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne, but the wait is now over. (photo)

Townend, home to the Brownes from the 1520s until 1943, maintains an exquisite collection of more than 170 books from the 1600s, with a few dating to the mid-1500s. What were those farmers reading?

Why was Henry VIII’s face replaced in the painting “Field of the Cloth of Gold”?  The facial image of him on horseback is not the original, and theories abound as to why he was “decapitated”.

London pastry chef Regis Cursan must have been surprised by his discovery of an ancient coin near Putney Bridge in West London, especially since the coin "depicts a man and a woman engaged in an intimate act." (photos)

Stratford's Royal Shakespeare Company is hoping to construct a "flatpack replica" of famous theater for use in large productions in London. The theater interior would be reconstructed inside an existing building.

The new film Anonymous, which debates the authorship of Shakespeare's plays, has opened a new controversary: the playwright's religion. L'Osservatore Romano reports that references in several plays prove that the Bard was Roman Catholic.

In 1202, life in western Europe was changed by the publication of Liber abbaci, a book by Leonardo of Pisa, known as Fibonacci, the first general-purpose book of arithmetic in the West, which "explained the 'new' methods in terms understandable to ordinary people."

Writer Chris Rowe, winner of a recent Just Back article-writing contest for the travel page of the Telegraph, chronicles a summer-school visit to Vindolanda, the famous Roman fort near Hadrian's Wall in the north of England.

The world's largest collection of beautifully-illuminated British royal manuscripts from the 9th through 16th centuries will be on display this winter at the British Museum.

Leon Humphreys, of Bury St Edmunds, England, failed to notify the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) that his Suzuki motorcycle was off the road, incurring a UK£25 fine, but instead of payment, Humphreys demanded the ancient right to trial by combat.

After a three-year restoration project, the 13th century Tree of Fertility fresco in the small Italian town of Massa Marittima was ready to view, but art experts had some problems with the restoration work when they noticed that testicles and phalluses hanging from the tree had been removed.

The editors of the Telegraph pay homage to everyone's favorite brew with a slideshow of photos entitled An illustrated history of English beer.

Archaeologists at King's Knot in Stirling, Scotland have discovered a "circular feature" that some believe might be the fabled round table of King Arthur.

Excavations of a construction site in Burton Latimer, in Northamptonshire, England, have unearthed nearly 40kg of Roman pottery, ironwork, and the remains of 30 Romans, leading experts to believe that the site was once a wealthy Roman village.

When Salvator Mundi or Saviour of the World, goes to auction, it could sell for a world record UK£125 million. The recently-restored painting, once attributed to Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio, a protégé of Leonardo, has been certified an authentic da Vinci by a panel of experts. (photo)