History glossary
Martyr
a witness who suffers or dies for their faith or cause.
- Category
- Religious witness
- Region
- Christian world
- Date range
- Ancient world onward
What it means
A martyr is a witness who suffers or dies for their faith or cause. In early Christianity, martyrs were remembered as people whose endurance under persecution testified that loyalty to Christ mattered more than survival.
Stories using this term
The Anglo-Saxons
The Anglo-Saxons were the peoples and kingdoms that shaped Anglo-Saxon England after the end of Roman rule in Britain. From migration and settlement in Anglo-Saxon Britain to Christian conversion, Viking attacks, Alfred the Great, and the road to 1066, Anglo-Saxon history explains how early medieval England took form. Their language, laws, kingdoms, monasteries, and political traditions left a lasting mark on English identity before the Norman Conquest transformed the realm.
The Elizabethan Age
Elizabeth I’s reign brought stability, cultural flourishing, exploration, and victory over the Spanish Armada.
The English Reformation
Henry VIII’s break with Rome reshaped religion, politics, and identity through decades of upheaval.
The Tudor Dynasty
The Tudors strengthened royal power, drove religious change, and shaped early modern England.
The Rise of Christianity
From Jesus in Roman Judea to medieval Europe, Christianity grew from a persecuted movement into an imperial and civilisational force.
The Rise of Adolf Hitler
From the ashes of World War I to the Night of the Long Knives, this story traces the political rise of Adolf Hitler and the collapse of the Weimar Republic.
Napoleon and the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleon turned revolutionary opportunity into continental empire, then lost it in total war that still transformed European politics, states, and nationalism.
