The HA Virtual Branch is a great way to keep your history up-to-date, whether you are working or relaxing, all from the comfort of your home. The Virtual Branch is free and open to everybody, and recordings of the talks are made available online after the event for HA members....

One of the HA’s aims is to bring you accessible and enjoyable history wherever you are based and whatever amount of time you have to dedicate to it. That's why we work to put together a regular programme of events with a variety of formats and delivery. You might prefer the social element of...

Rob Eastaway is an author, speaker and broadcaster. He is regular guest on the award-winning BBC podcast More or Less, and has appeared many times on other Radio 4 programmes including The Today Programme, Word of Mouth and Front Row. His books include the bestselling Why Do Buses Come In...

Anne Curry is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Southampton and a past president of the Historical Association. She is the author of Henry V' in the Penguin Monarchs series, and of many books and articles on the Hundred Years War and the battle of Agincourt. In 2022...

Oliver Cromwell’s death in 1658 sparked a period of unrivalled turmoil and confusion in English history. In less than two years, there were close to ten changes of government; rival armies of Englishmen faced each other across the Scottish border; and the Long Parliament was finally dissolved after two decades....

Emma Smith is Professor of Shakespeare Studies at Hertford College, Oxford. Her book, Portable Magic: a history of books and their readers, was shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize in 2023. This lecture is based on a forthcoming book, The First Elizabethans: England’s sixteenth century Renaissance.

After teaching at the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Reading and London, Edith Hall took up a Chair in Classics and Ancient History at the University of Durham in 2021. She has published more than thirty books on ancient Greece and Rome and their continuing presences in the modern world. She...

The religious wars of the Crusades are renowned for their military engagements. But the period was witness to brutality beyond the battlefield. More so than any other medieval war zone, the Holy Land was rife with unprecedented levels of criminality and violence. In the first history of its kind, Steve...

There were some regions of Europe that experienced very few witchcraft trials. This included the Celtic parts of the British Isles, in particular Wales. That did not mean that witchcraft and related practices were not an integral part of the local belief systems there. By exploring what witchcraft looked like...

Any study of the intercultural relationships between the Indigenous peoples of North America and British settlers usually focuses on the differences that resulted in disputes and violence. However, on closer examination, the interaction also involved the exchange of ideas and the forging of alliances, which required diplomacy and respect for...

This series is free and available to all to attend live. Recordings will be made exclusively available to HA Members. Find out about membership here.   To mark the anniversary of the publication of Shakespeare’s first folio in 1623–24, the winter webinar series will focus on ‘The history that Shakespeare gave...

The Dudleys thrived at the court of Henry VII, but were sacrificed to the popularity of Henry VIII. Rising to prominence in the reign of Edward VI, the Dudleys lost it all by advancing Jane Grey to the throne over Mary I. That was until the reign of Elizabeth I,...