The Making Of Britain 400 - 1400

Module description

The modules offered in each academic year are subject to change in line with staff availability and student demand: there is no guarantee every module will run. Module descriptions and information may vary between years.

The period of history between the collapse of Roman rule in the fifth century and the Black Death in the fourteenth shaped the Britain in which we live today. It saw the introduction of the English language, and the creation of political divisions which still stand. While the independent state formed in Scotland defeated England’s attempts at conquest, the English kingdom, forged out of the many small kingdoms of the post-Roman period, eventually subjected Wales to its rule.

The period also saw the first English intervention in Ireland. With the whole future of the United Kingdom now in the melting pot, we are still grappling with the consequences of these events. This unique course presents an in-depth and comparative view of these political developments while at the same time shedding light on the lives of men and women of all classes, from slaves and peasants upwards. It considers how they were affected by political uncertainty, religious intolerance, a vibrant but precarious economy, bouts of plague, the demands of lords, feud, crime and punishment, and the burdens and benefits of a royal government – a government which in England created both the common law and the tax-based parliamentary state. One major theme is the way Britain’s history was influenced by peoples and ideas coming from continental Europe, including Christian missionaries, Anglo-Saxon, Viking and Norman invaders (1066 and all that) and kings who strove to protect and (in the Hundred Years War) expand an empire in France.

These central themes are brought to life by close discussion of key primary sources including Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, Domesday Book, Magna Carta, and the passionate defence of Scotland’s independence known as the Declaration of Arbroath.

 

Assessment details

1 x 3 hour examination (100%)

Teaching pattern

20 x 1-hour lectures (weekly); 20 x 1-hour seminars (weekly)

Module description disclaimer

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Please note that modules with a practical component will be capped due to educational requirements, which may mean that we cannot guarantee a place to all students who elect to study this module.

Please note that the module descriptions above are related to the current academic year and are subject to change.