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Found 86 results matching 'brief history' within Secondary > Curriculum Support > Periods and Themes > Periods > Early Medieval   (Clear filter)

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  • Edward the Confessor and the Norman Conquest

      Classic Pamphlet
    Nine hundred years have elapsed since the death of Edward the Confessor, the last English king descended directly from Cerdic, king of Wessex in the sixth century - and so from the pagan gods. Nine hundred years are a long time; and if Edward had been succeeded by a son,...
    Edward the Confessor and the Norman Conquest

  • 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

  • The Early Mediaeval State

      Classic Pamphlet
    In order to define the constitution of a state, theorists and historians still apply Aristotle's categories; monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy. This method has obvious limitations; there can be no doubt that the formal sovereignty either of an individual or of a minority or a majority does not of itself suffice...
    The Early Mediaeval State

  • Government and Society in Late Medieval Spain

      Classic Pamphlet
    Government and Society in Late Medieval Spain: From the accession of the House of Trastámara to Ferdinand and IsabellaThe history of late medieval Spain is usually seen as a tiresome introduction to the reigns of the Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella. Modern historians tend to portray them as ‘new monarchs',...
    Government and Society in Late Medieval Spain

  • Papal Election and Murder

      Historian article
    Before the smoke clears: The longest papal election in history was marred by a brutal murder Papal elections never used to be so short or easy. In 1268 Pope Clement IV died and the cardinals, divided between French and Italian factions, would be deadlocked for the next three years over...
    Papal Election and Murder

  • Cathars and Castles in Medieval France

      Historian article
    Almost exactly 800 years ago, in September 1213, a decisive battle was fought at Muret, about ten miles south-west of Toulouse. King Peter II of Aragon, fighting with southern allies from Toulouse and elsewhere, faced an army largely made up of northern French crusaders who had invaded the region at the...
    Cathars and Castles in Medieval France

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

      Historian 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

  • 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

  • Podcast Series: The Vikings

      Podcasted history
    An HA Podcasted History of the Vikings featuring Professor Rosamond McKitterick, Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge.
    Podcast Series: The Vikings

  • 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

  • Podcast Series: Medieval Scotland

      Medieval Scottish History
    In this set of podcasts Professor Mark Ormrod of the University of York, Dr Alex Woolf, Dr Katie Stevenson & Professor Michael Brown of the University of St Andrews look at some key aspects of medieval Scottish history.
    Podcast Series: Medieval Scotland

  • 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?

  • 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

  • Cunning Plan 178: How far did Anglo-Saxon England survive the Norman Conquest?

      Teaching History feature
    Cunning Plan for using the metaphor of a tree to help students characterise the process of change and engage with a historian’s argument. In this Cunning Plan, Eve Hackett sets out how she used a recent work of history about the Norman Conquest as inspiration for her teaching of Year...
    Cunning Plan 178: How far did Anglo-Saxon England survive the Norman Conquest?

  • 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

  • Medieval 'Signs and Marvels'

      Historian article
    Medieval ‘Signs and Marvels': insights into medieval ideas about nature and the cosmic order. Many aspects of life in the Middle Ages puzzle the modern reader but some are stranger than others. What can possibly explain an event reported from Orford Castle, in Suffolk? This is an amazing tale and...
    Medieval 'Signs and Marvels'

  • Women in Late Medieval Bristol

      Classic Pamphlet
    During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries Bristol was one of England's greatest towns, with a population of perhaps 100,000 after the Black Death of 1348. Its status was recognised in 1373, with its creation as the realm's first provincial urban county, but only in 1542, with the creation of the...
    Women in Late Medieval Bristol

  • The making of Magna Carta

      Historian article
    Magna Carta provided a commentary on the ills of the realm in the time of King John. Sophie Ambler looks at what grievances were addressed in the Charter, how the Charter was made, and what the Charter tells us about King John himself.  The world from which Magna Carta came...
    The making of Magna Carta

  • Foreigners in England in the later Middle Ages

      Historian article
    In an era when there are great debates about immigration and what constitutes nationality, Mark Ormrod introduces us to a new research database which reveals that immigration was an important feature of economic, cultural and political debate in the period 1330-1550... In the Middle Ages, the political configuration of the...
    Foreigners in England in the later Middle Ages

  • The First Crusade

      Pamphlet
    Nine centuries after enthusiasm for pope Urban's expedition to Jerusalem swept western Europe the phenomenon of the first crusade continues to fascinate. This pamphlet examines the nature of the crusades and the motives of those who joined it, describes the hardships of the long journey to the Holy Land and...
    The First Crusade

  • Edward III & David II - Pamphlet

      Classic Pamphlet
    When Alexander II met his tragic death at Kinghorn in 1286, the event was speedily to put an end to the cordial relations which had prevailed for a hundred years between England and Scotland and to substitute chronic hostility for two and half centuries. Edward I, fresh from the conquest...
    Edward III & David II - Pamphlet

  • The English Captivity of James I, King of Scots

      Article
    This booklet tells the story of James the first, with the events leading up to his capture and detailing the eighteen years spent in it. Balfour-Melville puts into writing the colourful, if not tragic, life of the capture and mere 13 year reign James.  Brought alive in words, a King...
    The English Captivity of James I, King of Scots

  • Podcast Series: Religion in Medieval Europe

      Religion in Medieval Europe
    In this set of podcasts Professor Miri Rubin of Queen Mary University of London, Professor Robert Swanson of the University of Birmingham & Dr Francois Soyer of the University of Southampton look at Christianity, Judaism and Islam in Medieval Europe.
    Podcast Series: Religion in Medieval Europe

  • Bayeux

      Historian article
    Bayeux, 23 kilometres west of Caen, was the first French town to be liberated in 1944 - on 7 June in fact, the day after the landings. Yet its origins go much further back than that: its first bishop was consecrated in the fourth century. It became part of Normandy...
    Bayeux

  • Podcast Series: The Byzantine Empire

      Byzantium
    In this podcast Dr Dionysios Stathakopoulos of King's College London looks at the history of the Byzantine Empire from its origins in the Roman Empire to the fall of Constantinople.
    Podcast Series: The Byzantine Empire