Crime, courts and justice

Security Service files paint a vivid picture of what happened when Anthony Blunt – then employed in the royal household – admitted spying for the Soviet Union.

Records in our collection show how same-sex personal adverts published in the 1960s become part of a high-profile legal battle.

Pre-trial statements from this 1776 dispute between the Chevalier d’Eon and Charles de Morande provide intricate details about these two French spies.

When can a lemon have fatal consequences? If it proves you are, in fact, a wartime spy…

Following the Napoleonic Wars, smuggling became a major concern for the British government.

This book caused confusion and disagreement among family members, but also provided an unusually intimate view of this well-known household.

Through intrigue and ambition Thomas Cromwell rose to become one of Henry VIII's key advisors. What can records at The National Archives tell us about his life?

Our records tell the story of Emily Capper's desperate campaign to recover the bodies of the victims, including that of her son.

Did you know that the word ‘camp’ was used by members of the LGBTQ+ community as early as 1868?

Sir John Fielding grew to become one of England’s first and greatest police detectives. And for his entire crime-fighting career, he was blind.

What was the everyday reality for LGBTQ+ people in the 80s and 90s living under the infamous Section 28, and how was it eventually repealed?

Section 28 of the 1988 Local Government Act negatively affected LGBTQ+ lives for decades. How did such a seismic piece of legislation come about?

The Treason Act defined the crime of ‘high treason’ in law for the first time. It is one of the oldest pieces of legislation still on the statute book today.

This angry letter offers a rare view of the words of ordinary people at the time, threatening violence in response to falling living standards in rural England.

Is this the most famous anonymous letter in British history? Perhaps it should be. Without it, the Gunpowder Plot might have succeeded.

More than a thousand people who supported women’s right to vote were arrested for their activism. This document records them – and includes some famous names.

Was a woman arrested for murder in Victorian Liverpool an unfortunate person caught up in a series of ill-fated events, or something much more sinister?

On the Windrush passenger list, white socialite Nancy Cunard (1896–1965) is described as a 'writer', but she was also a staunch activist for Black civil rights.

The police raid on a secret queer nightclub in 1933 gives an insight into the lives of gay men in interwar London and their defiance in the face of persecution.

Maud Allan (1873–1956) was a celebrated West End dancer in the early 20th century until she became entangled in one of the most sensational trials of the 1920s.

Emmeline Pankhurst (1858–1928) was a tireless political activist, who led the WSPU – the militant faction of the movement for women’s suffrage.

Radclyffe Hall (1880–1943) lived relatively openly as a lesbian in an era that condemned such relationships. Today she is an icon of LGBTQ+ literature.

William Cuffey (1788–1870) was a disabled, working-class campaigner. He was a leading figure in the Chartism movement, famed for his powerful oratory.

The trial of nine black protestors who were arrested while demonstrating in Notting Hill in the early 1970s became a public platform to criticise police racism.