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Magna Carta: oblivion and revival
Historian article
Magna Carta was to go through a number of revisions before it finally took its place on the statute book. Nicholas Vincent takes us through the twists and turns of the tale of the Charter's death and revival after June 1215.
The Charter issued by King John at Runnymede is...
Magna Carta: oblivion and revival
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Polychronicon 112: The Angevin Empire
Teaching History feature
Polychronicon was a fourteenth-century chronicle that brought together much of the knowledge of its ownage. Our Polychronicon in Teaching History is a regular feature helping school history teachers to update their subject knowledge, with special emphasis on recent historiography and changing interpretation. This edition of the 'Polychronicon' concentrates on the...
Polychronicon 112: The Angevin Empire
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Remembering Agincourt: Bilingual Enquiry
Multipage Article
Do they learn about Agincourt in France?
2015 was a year of anniversaries. As part of our funded commemoration projects surrounding the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt, we have commissioned an enquiry looking at the battle and how it has been remembered, particularly aimed at pupils in years...
Remembering Agincourt: Bilingual Enquiry
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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
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A medieval credit crunch
Historian article
The project: A three-year research project started in December 2007 with the aim of investigating the credit arrangements of a succession of English monarchs with a number of Italian merchant societies. The study, based at the ICMA Centre, University of Reading, is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)....
A medieval credit crunch
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Year 7 challenge stereotypes about the Mexica
Teaching History article
After discussing a new book about the Mexica (Aztecs) during a routine meeting with a trainee teacher, Niamh Jennings decided to construct a sequence of lessons around the history of the Mexica Empire. Struck by the vivid storytelling of historian Camilla Townsend in her book Fifth Sun, and fascinated by...
Year 7 challenge stereotypes about the Mexica
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Developing KS3 students’ ability to challenge their history curriculum through an early introduction of significance
Teaching History article
Offered five weeks to teach ‘whatever he wanted’ to Year 7, Andrew Slater decided that he wished to tackle the concept of significance head-on early in his students’ time in his school. He chose the expectedly unfamiliar substantive content of the Khmer Empire, challenging his students to justify the significance of...
Developing KS3 students’ ability to challenge their history curriculum through an early introduction of significance
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Exploring and Teaching Medieval History in Schools
A secondary education publication of the Historical Association
This resource is free to everyone. For access to our library of high-quality secondary history materials along with free or discounted CPD and membership of a thriving community of history teachers and subject leaders, join the Historical Association today
Three words sum up the approach of this publication to the...
Exploring and Teaching Medieval History in Schools
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Exploring change and continuity with Year 7
Teaching History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
A great deal has been written about causation in the pages of Teaching History. From camels to linguistics, this is a second-order concept that teachers and pupils frequently deliberate.
Departments balance the need for substantive knowledge with explicit...
Exploring change and continuity with Year 7
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The Aztecs & Spanish Conquest for GCSE
Briefing Pack
Ian Mursell set up Mexicolore in 1980 with his Mexican partner Graciela Sánchez and has worked since then with a wide variety of heritage and academic partners specialising in Aztec and Maya history. With the Aztecs now becoming a study unit on the OCR 2016 GCSE specification B, the Historical...
The Aztecs & Spanish Conquest for GCSE
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The Nation of the Scots and the Declaration of Arbroath
Classic Pamphlet
This pamphlet seeks to chart the progress of the Scottish struggle for independence after 1291 by considering the changing nature of the Scottish resistance. The primary sources are exiguous when compared to those bearing upon the English attempt at subjugation, and the interpretation offered is at best tentative: that initially...
The Nation of the Scots and the Declaration of Arbroath
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Seeing, hearing and doing the renaissance (Part 2)
Teaching History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
In the last edition of Teaching History, Maria Osowiecki described in detail the fourth lesson in a five-lesson enquiry entitled: What was remarkable about the Renaissance? She also shared her resources for two lively, interactive...
Seeing, hearing and doing the renaissance (Part 2)
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1450: The Rebellion of Jack Cade
Classic Pamphlet
‘When Kings and chief officers suffer their under rulers to misuse their subjects and will not hear nor remedy their people's wrongs when they complain, then suffereth God the rebel to rage and to execute that part of His justice which the partial prince will not.'
Thus did the Tudor...
1450: The Rebellion of Jack Cade
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Confounding expectation at Key Stage 3: flower-songs from an indigenous empire
Teaching History article
In this article Nicolas Kinloch examines aspects of an indigenous empire: that of Aztec Mexico. He attempts to persuade a group of mixed-ability Year 8 students to examine - and question - some of the assumptions they bring to the study of this empire. Their attitudes reflect quite widespread beliefs...
Confounding expectation at Key Stage 3: flower-songs from an indigenous empire
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Podcast Series: The Rise of an Islamic Civilisation
Early Islam
An HA Podcasted History of the Rise of an Islamic Civilisation featuring Dr Caroline Goodson of Birkbeck, University of London.
Podcast Series: The Rise of an Islamic Civilisation
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Podcast lecture: Mad or Bad? Was Henry VI a tyrant?
Presidential Lecture 2011
Professor Anne Curry delivered her final Presidential lecture at the Historical Association Annual Conference 2011 in Manchester.
Henry VI (1422-61) was England's youngest king, only nine months old when he succeeded his famous father. Traditionally he is seen as incompetent, pious and, latterly, insane, and thereby causing the Wars of...
Podcast lecture: Mad or Bad? Was Henry VI a tyrant?
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Podcast Series: The Spanish Golden Age
Multipage Article
An HA Podcasted History of the Spanish Golden Age featuring Dr Glyn Redworth of Manchester University and Dr Francois Soyer of the University of Southampton.
Podcast Series: The Spanish Golden Age
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The Vikings in Britain
Historian Article
Professor Henry Loyn provides an update on recent studies of the Viking Age. Interest in the activities of the Scandinavian people in Britain during the Viking Age, c 800-1100 A.D., has been strong in the last half-century or so, and it is good to pause and assess contributions to the...
The Vikings in Britain
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What can rituals reveal about power in the medieval world? Teaching Year 7 pupils to apply interdisciplinary approaches
Teaching History article
Much has been written in recent years about how historical scholarship can be used to shape practice in the classroom. As an historian of the medieval period now working as an history teacher, Dhwani Patel offers a fresh perspective on these debates. During her PGCE year, Patel found herself reflecting...
What can rituals reveal about power in the medieval world? Teaching Year 7 pupils to apply interdisciplinary approaches
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Harold Son of Godwin
Classic Pamphlet
To lecture on Harold Godwinson, earl of Wessex, King Harold II of England, in the year 1966 at Hastings is a presumption. We appear to know much about him, and yet in fact there are many gaps in knowledge. Much information, so plausible at first sight, proves unreliable on closer...
Harold Son of Godwin
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Film: Creating a more positive interpretation of the Middle Ages at Key Stage 3
Secondary History Workshop Annual Conference 2019
Popular perceptions of life, politics and morality in the Middle Ages are overwhelmingly negative, a far cry from images being developed by historians through their research. This workshop explores how to tweak and change familiar topics (including the reign of Richard III) to create a more historically accurate, positive and...
Film: Creating a more positive interpretation of the Middle Ages at Key Stage 3
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Peter Abelard
Classic Pamphlet
The Catalogue of Printed Books in the British Library contains a large number of entries under the name of Peter Abelard. Most relate to books published in the last two hundred years and most of the editions of works written by Abelard, as distinct from books about him or about...
Peter Abelard
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How do you construct an historical claim?
Teaching History article
While preparing her Year 12 students for an International Baccalaureate paper on early Islam, Kirstie Murray became concerned that students' weaknesses in making claims would be particularly exposed by the challenging complexity of this topic's source record and its contested historiography.
Drawing on the practice of other history teachers, especially...
How do you construct an historical claim?
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The Great Powers in the Pacific
Classic Pamphlet
This pamphlet covers a very large period of history in a very important region with great detail and focus. Themes that are covered include the transition of power and dominance in the pacific region, the conflicts that frequently arose in the struggle for pacific dominance throughout the centuries, as well...
The Great Powers in the Pacific
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The Miraculous Crusade: The Role of the Mystical and Miraculous in the Morale and Motivation of the First Crusade
Historian article
The First Crusade may be considered the only really successful crusade in that it achieved its stated goal, but it demanded great courage and stamina of its participants in their journey to the Holy City of Jerusalem, fighting their way through an unforgiving hostile territory. But courage and stamina by...
The Miraculous Crusade: The Role of the Mystical and Miraculous in the Morale and Motivation of the First Crusade
