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A couple are sitting on a royal treasure after workmen renovating their 16th century cottage in the village of Hanwell, Oxfordshire, unearthed a priceless stone coat of arms – hidden behind tatty wallpaper. The smashed up sculpture could be more than 400 years old and has been linked...

Here, Janine Bryant from the University of Birmingham, who has researched medieval coroners' rolls of three English counties – Warwickshire, London and Bedfordshire – reveals some of the most intriguing causes of death in the medieval period… 5 strange causes of death in the medieval...

A medieval man, who may have been a knight, died from injuries sustained from jousting, marks on his skeleton suggest. The remains were found at Hereford Cathedral and show signs of injury to the right shoulder as well as fractured ribs. Experts said the wounds are all consistent with injuries...

Amateur photographer Martin Le-May, from Essex, has recorded the extraordinary image of a weasel riding on the back of a green woodpecker as it flies through the air. The photograph was taken at Hornchurch Country Park in east London on Monday afternoon. Speaking to BBC...

A coffin-within-a-coffin discovered next to Richard III's remains in Leicester contained a woman who could have been an early Church benefactor, experts have said. The lead coffin in a stone sarcophagus was found in the same car park as the king and was initially thought to be a...

The Royal Mint has unveiled a new coinage portrait of the Queen. It shows a side profile of the 88-year-old monarch wearing a crown and drop earrings. It is only the fifth definitive coin portrait to have been created during her 63-year reign. Coins featuring the...

A first-year archaeology student has unearthed an Anglo-Saxon pendant of 'national significance' worth £50,000. Tom Lucking, 23, was stunned when he stumbled across an Anglo-Saxon grave on farmland near Diss, Norfolk. He had been metal detecting since he was 11 but had only ever found common...

An extremely rare £1 coin dating back to the start of English Civil War is expected to fetch £50,000 at auction. The solid silver 1643 Declaration Pound was struck in Oxford, which was Charles I's seat of power after he withdrew from London. Charles was beheaded just six years after the coin...

Teeth extracted from a medieval English King will be displayed as part of the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta. Two molars belonging to King John, who granted the charter in 1215, will be displayed at the British Library alongside two copies of the document. The...

The British scientist who coined the word "dinosaur" in 1842 and founded London's Natural History Museum has been honoured with a blue plaque at the Lancaster school he attended as a child. But who was Sir Richard Owen? Sir Richard Owen: The man who invented the dinosaur...

The Duke of Cambridge has arrived in Tokyo for a four-day visit to Japan. It was raining as he was greeted by students and school children on a visit to Tokyo's Hama Rikyu Gardens. Prince William is on a week long trip to China and Japan where he will undertake...

A new 50-peso note which aims to bring "into daily use" the Argentine claim to the Falkland Islands has been mocked by residents of the islands. The new bank note will go into circulation next month, Alejandro Vanoli, president of the central bank, announced on Monday. The design of...

The EU's greatest acts of make-believe in recent years - the single currency, its asylum policy, and Ukraine - are coming back to haunt it, says Christopher Booker Three EU dreams that have turned into nightmares...

The 1066 Battle of Hastings is one of the most famous dates in medieval history. But it is often forgotten that the Norman Conquest was preceded by another invasion of England some 50 years earlier – one led by Danish warrior Cnut in 1015–16. Here, medieval blogger Dr Eleanor Parker...

An exact replica of the Magna Carta, made out of cake, has gone on display at Salisbury Cathedral to mark the great document's 800th anniversary. Baker Christine Jensen, from Penzance, Cornwall, took 94 hours to make the clone of the document, which set out the ideals of liberty and justice...

"Heartbreaking" graffiti uncovered in a Cambridgeshire church has revealed how three sisters from one family died in a plague outbreak in 1515. The names Cateryn, Jane and Amee Maddyngley and the date were inscribed on stonework in Kingston parish church. It was found by...

Luis Figo would consider a bigger World Cup if he is elected to replace Sepp Blatter as Fifa president. Releasing his manifesto at Wembley Stadium, the legendary Portugal midfielder, who won the Champions League with Real Madrid in 2002 and the now defunct Cup Winners' Cup...

A fossil stored in a Doncaster museum for 30 years and thought to be a plaster copy has turned out to be a new species of ancient reptile. A young palaeontologist working with the University of Manchester found the fossil in 2008, in the collections of Doncaster Museum and Art...

Guitar band Suede are to be crowned as a Godlike Genius at the NME Awards 2015 With Austin, Texas in London. Suede, whom organisers have billed as "one of the most exciting guitar bands of all time", kick started the Brit-pop revolution of the 1990s and have had a ground breaking career...

From BBC News's brand spanking new website.... Engineers in the UK have found that limpets' teeth consist of the strongest biological material ever tested. Limpets use a tongue bristling with tiny teeth to scrape food off rocks and into their mouths, often swallowing particles of rock in the...