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  • The Personal Rule of Charles I 1629-40

      Classic Pamphlet
    Historians are often accused of viewing the past with hindsight, or of being wise after the event. Not being prophets or soothsayers, we have to look backwards in time because we cannot look forwards. The real question is from what vantage point or perspective we view a particular part of...
    The Personal Rule of Charles I 1629-40

  • Charles XII

      Classic Pamphlet
    The reputation of Charles XII who became king of Sweden before he was fifteen years old and had the responsibility of absolutist goverment thrust upon him within the next six months - contrary to the plans laid down for him by his father - has tended to attract political rather...
    Charles XII

  • Culture Shock: The Arrival of the Conquistadores in Aztec Mexico

      Historian article
    When the Spanish Conquistadores arrived in Mexico during the early sixteenth century there were many repercussions for the indigenous people. Their conversion to Christianity and the sacking of their temples are two of the most well known examples.  However, it is often forgotten that the Aztecs had only a pictorial...
    Culture Shock: The Arrival of the Conquistadores in Aztec Mexico

  • The Origins of Parliament

      Classic Pamphlet
    He who would seek the origins of parliament cannot proceed without knowing that this is, and this has been, a matter much controverted. English politics have very often been conducted in terms of what has passed for history, not least because they have so frequently revolved around the rights and...
    The Origins of Parliament

  • The Armada Campaign of 1588

      Classic Pamphlet
    Between 1585 and 1588 a state of undeclared war existed between England and Spain. During the course of those years, Philip II devised a plan for the 'Enterprise of England'. It was probably  the most ambitious military operation of the sixteenth century: a massive invasion to be mounted jointly by...
    The Armada Campaign of 1588

  • Film: Acts of Union and Disunion

      An Interview with Linda Colley
    Professor Linda Colley CBE, FBA, FRSL, FRHistS is a British Historian and a Fellow of the Historical Association. At the start of 2014 she wrote and presented a BBC Radio 4 series about the Acts of Union and Disunion, now a book. Over the summer she came into the HA...
    Film: Acts of Union and Disunion

  • The strange death of King Harold II: Propaganda and the problem of legitimacy in the aftermath of the Battle of Hastings

      Article
    How did King Harold II die at the Battle of Hastings? The question is simple enough and the answer is apparently well known. Harold was killed by an arrow which struck him in the eye. His death is depicted clearly on the Bayeux Tapestry in one of its most famous...
    The strange death of King Harold II: Propaganda and the problem of legitimacy in the aftermath of the Battle of Hastings

  • Louis XIV

      Classic Pamphlet
    Louis XIV was born on 5 September 1638 and became King on May 14 1643 at the age of four years and eight months on the death of his father Louis XIII. He attended the Conseil d'en haut from 1649 when he was eleven years old. He announced his coming...
    Louis XIV

  • Real Lives: Surviving the War in the Soviet Union: recollections of a child deportee

      Historian feature
    This 'Real Lives' piece is based on a series of interviews Annette Ormanczyk carried out in 2019 with Mrs Irena Persak, who was deported as a five-year-old child with her family in February 1940. As well as offering a fascinating personal account of life in the Soviet Union during the Second...
    Real Lives: Surviving the War in the Soviet Union: recollections of a child deportee

  • Alexander II

      Classic Pamphlet
    The ‘great reforms' of Tsar Alexander II (1855-81) are generally recognised as the most significant events in modern Russian history between the reign of Peter the Great and the revolutions of 1905 and 1917. The most important of Alexander's reforms, the emancipation of he serfs in 1861, has been described...
    Alexander II

  • Real Lives: Harry Daley

      Historian feature
    Our series ‘Real Lives’ seeks to put the story of the ordinary person into our great historical narrative. We are all part of the rich fabric of the communities in which we live and we are affected to greater and lesser degrees by the big events that happen on a daily...
    Real Lives: Harry Daley

  • Benjamin Jesty: Grandfather of Vaccination

      Historian article
    Commonly hailed as a discovery or a ‘medical breakthrough', vaccination against smallpox with cowpox exudate was a development of variolation i.e. inoculation with live smallpox matter - a technique popularised amongst the gentry in the early eighteenth century by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu who had observed the procedure in Turkey...
    Benjamin Jesty: Grandfather of Vaccination

  • The Falklands War anniversary

      1st April 2022
    This month (April 2022) is the 40th anniversary of the start of the Falklands Conflict. On 2 April 1982 an Argentinian Force of 3,000 men invaded the Falkland Islands taking the Islanders and the 80 Royal Marines stationed there by surprise. Despite pressure from the United Nations to withdraw the Argentinians attempted...
    The Falklands War anniversary

  • Smithfield's Bartholomew Fair

      Historian article
    On the north-western side of the City of London, directly in front of St Bartholomew's Hospital near the ancient church of St Bartholomew the Great, there once lay a ‘smooth field', now known as Smithfield. This open space of around ten acres had a long and turbulent history. In medieval...
    Smithfield's Bartholomew Fair

  • Christopher Hill: Marxism and Methodism

      Historian article
    Christopher Hill, the eminent historian of seventeenth century England, was a convinced Marxist throughout most of his long and productive life (1912-2003). He embraced this secular world-view when he was a young History student at Oxford in the polemical 1930s and never lost his ideological commitment, even though he resigned...
    Christopher Hill: Marxism and Methodism

  • Jubilee and the Idea of Royalty

      2002 Medlicott Lecture
    The Medlicott Lecture delivered at the Historical Association Annual General Meeting on 27th April 2002, transcribed and featured in The Historian 76.
    Jubilee and the Idea of Royalty

  • 1066: The Limits of our Knowledge

      Historian 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...
    1066: The Limits of our Knowledge

  • An Interview with David Cannadine - Podcast

      Medlicott Interview
    On June 18 2013 David Cannadine will formally receive the Historical Association's Medlicott Medal for Services to History. In anticipation of the evening awards event that will culminate in a lecture by Professor Cannadine, we met with the great man to reflect on his award and his career.
    An Interview with David Cannadine - Podcast

  • Verdun: the endless battle

      Historian article
    Most can agree that the battle of Verdun started 100 years ago, on 21 February 1916, when the Germans began attacking French positions north and east of the old fortress town on the Meuse river. Few can agree on when it ended. The Germans might draw a line under it...
    Verdun: the endless battle

  • Chartism

      Classic Pamphlet
    It is not surprising that Chartism has attracted a great deal of interest from historians and students, for at no other period in British history, with the possible exception of the second and third decades of the twentieth century, has so much excitement and activity been aroused at the working-class...
    Chartism

  • MOOCs and the Middle Ages

      Historian 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...
    MOOCs and the Middle Ages

  • French chivalry in twelfth-century Britain?

      Historian article
    The year 1066 - the one universally remembered date in English history, so well-known that banks advise customers not to choose it as their PIN number - opened the country up to French influence in spectacular fashion. During the ‘long twelfth century' (up to King John's death in 1216) that...
    French chivalry in twelfth-century Britain?

  • From tragedy to triumph: The courage of Henrietta, Lady of Luxborough 1699-1756

      Historian article
    Why is Henrietta Luxborough, who was born in 1699, of interest today? In the first place because of whom she was; in the second because of what happened to her; and in the third because of her courage which enabled her to overcome adversity and lead a life utterly different...
    From tragedy to triumph: The courage of Henrietta, Lady of Luxborough 1699-1756

  • My Favourite Place - Beamish

      Historian feature
    Hopping off a tram at Beamish Museum, you're stepping straight into life in Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian times. What I really love about Beamish, the Living Museum of the North, is that it not only shows how communities in the region used to live - but also gives you a...
    My Favourite Place - Beamish

  • Why did the Dome fail?

      Historian article
    History gives us a basis for understanding the groups which people belong to, the countries people live in and the institutions which govern them. It provides a sense of continuity and identity. However, on 31 December 1999 the Queen and Prime Minister opened an exhibition which made no reference to...
    Why did the Dome fail?