Britain & Ireland

Women and social history can be overlooked themes in periods where records tended to focus on money, religion and Kings. While those latter themes are covered in this section so are features on individual women, their relationships with power and how they were able to influence politics and the people around them. Social history is also addressed through the stories of Hermits, soldiers, tax records and revolting peasantry with nobles. Read more

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  • Virtual Branch: The Women of the Anarchy

    Article

    In 1135 Stephen of Blois usurped the throne, stealing it from his cousin Empress Matilda and sparking a nineteen-year civil war that would become known as the Anarchy, one of the bloodiest periods in English history. On the one side is Empress Matilda. On the other side is her cousin,...

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  • Film: Building Anglo-Saxon England

    Article

    Building Anglo-Saxon England demonstrates how recent excavations enable us to grasp for the first time the diversity of the Anglo-Saxon built environment. The book explores how the natural landscape was modified for human activity, and how settlements were laid out with geometrical precision by specialist surveyors. It also shows how...

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  • A woman’s place is in the castle

    Article

    This article looks at the role of two fourteenth century Scottish noblewomen, on opposing sides in the strife between Bruce and Balliol, who were left to defend their properties during their husbands’ absences. The Scottish Wars of Independence were fought over several decades of the late thirteenth and fourteenth centuries as...

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  • (Un)exceptional women: queenship and power in medieval Europe

    Article

    How was the power of a Queen described and how far did It extend? In this article some of the most important queens of the Medieval period are examined for the authority they were able to wield. When we think of queens, the idea that they are extraordinary women, elevated to the highest status...

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  • Film: A Jewish Divorce Case in Medieval England

    Article

    In 1242, the prominent thirteenth-century Jewish financier David of Oxford attempted to divorce his wife, Muriel. In the process, he met with a number of obstacles which seriously hampered his efforts and had far-reaching implications for the Jewish community as a whole. In the end, David had to appeal directly...

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  • Old age care in the time of crisis: London in the sixteenth century

    Article

    In her lecture to the General Strand of the HA Conference, Christine Fox describes the successes and failures of London institutions in dealing with the sixteenth-century crisis of poverty and elderly care. In late medieval and early modern thinking, human life was divided into three stages; youth, maturity, and old age. The latter...

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  • Film: Meet the author: Marc Morris on The Anglo-Saxons

    Article

    In this Virtual Branch talk best-selling author and renowned historian Marc Morris joined us to discuss the process of researching for, structuring and writing his new book The Anglo-Saxons: a history of the beginnings of England.  Drawing on a vast range of original evidence - chronicles, letters, archaeology and artefacts - Morris's...

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  • Recorded lecture: Henry V: Henry the Conqueror?

    Article

    Henry V - Henry the Conqueror? In this lecture former HA President Anne Curry Emeritus Professor of Medieval History Southampton addresses the question Henry V - Henry the Conqueror?'. She explores the relationship between Henry V, his court and those in France. (Please note: if you have HA Membership and are...

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  • Eleanor of Aquitaine’s journey

    Article

    Danielle E.A. Park takes us on a journey across the Pyrenees and Alps with a redoubtable woman. Eleanor of Aquitaine has acquired a reputation as something of a femme fatale. Her considerable inheritance of Aquitaine, marriages to two kings, the allegations of an affair with her uncle Raymond  of Poitiers,...

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  • The Great Charter

    Article

    The following introduction to and translation of Magna Carta was made for the use of my pupils and is here published in response to a suggestion that it may be of use to others. The Charter bristles with technical legal terms and its Latin is often ambiguous since the language...

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  • 1066 in 2016

    Article

    David Bates explores modern-day research into the complexities behind the politics and conflict of 1066, providing us with some new interpretations and perspectives. The many activities that took place around the time of the 950th anniversary of the battle of Hastings have shown that the year 1066 continues to have...

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  • 1066: The Limits of our Knowledge

    Article

    As the most pivotal and traumatic event in English history, the Norman Conquest continues to generate controversy and debate, especially among those who know little about it or enjoy passing judgement on the past. Who had the better claim to the English throne, William the Conqueror or Harold Godwineson? Was...

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  • Podcast Series: The Anglo-Saxons

    Multipage Article

    In this HA Podcast Series Professor Joanna Story of the University of Leicester looks at the history of the Anglo-Saxons.

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  • MOOCs and the Middle Ages

    Article

    Deirdre O’Sullivan explains how history courses such as England in the Time of Richard III are now freely available to people anywhere in the world who have online access. She reports that in the past two years 40,000 learners have followed this course. MOOCs (Massive Open Access Online Courses) are...

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  • Podcast Series: The Crusades

    Multipage Article

    An HA Podcasted History of the Crusades featuring Professor Jonathan Riley-Smith, Professor Jonathan Phillips of Royal Holloway, University of London and Dr Tom Asbridge of Queen Mary, University of London.

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  • Podcast Series: William I to Henry VII

    Multipage Article

    An HA Podcasted History featuring Professor David Bates and Professor Nicholas Vincent of the University of East Anglia, Dr Philip Morgan of Keele University, Professor Mark Ormrod of the University of York, Dr James Davis of Queens University Belfast, Professor Michael Hicks of the University of Winchester, Dr Sean Cunningham of...

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  • St Peter’s-ad-murum, Bradwell-juxta-Mare

    Article

    Marie Paterson discovered this historical and spiritual structure many years ago and it continues to affect her. In Essex, on the northern shore of the Dengie Hundred, overlooking the mouth of the Blackwater estuary, proudly stands the lonely Saxon chapel of St Peter’s-on-the-Wall. Erected on the site of the Roman...

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  • Podcast Series: Medieval Wales

    Multipage Article

    In this set of podcasts Dr Melissa Julian-Jones, Dr David Wyatt, Dr Gideon Brough and Dr Dylan Foster Evans of Cardiff University and Dr Emma Cavell of the University of Leeds look at some key aspects and figures of medieval Welsh history.

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  • Podcast Series: The Vikings

    Multipage Article

    An HA Podcasted History of the Vikings featuring Professor Rosamond McKitterick, Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge.

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  • Saxons, Normans and Victorians

    Article

    When Queen Victoria died in 1901, the Annual Register remarked that the feeling of forlorn-ness which swept the country had no parallel since the death of King Alfred. The men of the new century were driven to seek a Saxon parallel. So too were men at the beginning of the...

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