Unit name | Kingship and Crisis during the Wars of the Roses. (Level H Special Subject) |
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Unit code | HIST37011 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | H/6 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
Unit director | Dr. Reeks |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
None |
Co-requisites |
None |
School/department | Department of History (Historical Studies) |
Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
'Sackage, carnage and wreckage' is the 1066 & All That summary of the fifteenth century in England, and its image as an era of anarchy and bloodshed has been crystallised in the popular imagination from the history plays of William Shakespeare to Game of Thrones. However, over the last forty years, increasing interest has been taken in this 'Cinderella century' by scholars and controversy continues to rage over major issues of interpretation. This special subject will address perhaps the most vital question - that of kingship during a period of dynastic turbulence and usurpation. How was kingly authority conferred and its continued validity restated and reaffirmed in a century when every occupant of the English throne had his right to it challenged?
On successful completion of this unit students will have developed:
Seminars - 3 hours per week
1 x 3500 word essay (50%) and 1 x 2 hour exam (50%)
Both the essay and exam will assess ILOs 1-9
Carpenter, Christine, The Wars of the Roses: politics and the constitution in England, c. 1437-1509 (Cambridge, CUP, 1997)
Cook, David R., Lancastrians and Yorkists: the Wars of the Roses (London, Longman, 1984)
Dockray, Keith, William Shakespeare, the Wars of the Roses and the Historians (Stroud, Tempus, 2002)
Kleineke, Hannes & Christian Steer (eds), The Yorkist Age (Donington, Shaun Tyas, 2013)
Pollard, A.J., Late Medieval England, 1399-1509 (Harlow, Longman, 2000)
Pollard, A.J., The Wars of the Roses (2nd edn., Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2001)
Watts, John, Henry VI and the Politics of Kingship (Cambridge, CUP, 1996)