The British Isles, 1066-1603 (HIST*2000)

Code and section: HIST*2000*01

Term: Fall 2022

Instructor: James Fraser

Details

COURSE FORMAT: 

Two interactive lectures per week (1.5 hours each)

COURSE SYNOPSIS:

This course provides an introductory survey of the history of medieval and ‘early modern’ Britain and Ireland from the Norman conquest of Anglo-Saxon England in 1066 to the union of the Scottish and English crowns in 1603. Major figures, events, and processes will be covered (such as Norman conquest and expansion, the ‘Black Death’, the ‘Wars of the Roses’, the Reformation, and English imperialism in Wales, Scotland and Ireland); but there are also comparative discussions of society, religion and culture throughout this fascinating era amongst the English and ‘Celtic’ peoples in different parts of Britain and Ireland. Upon completion of the course, students will have not only have a sense of ‘what happened’ in the British Isles in these years, but also – and more importantly – a sense of the evidence from which scholarly understanding has developed over time, and the ways in which specialist opinion may be divided concerning the interpretation of medieval evidence.

TEXTS AND OTHER RESOURCES:

TEXTBOOK:
S. E. Lehmberg and S. A. Meigs, The peoples of the British Isles: a new history (Vol. 1: From prehistoric times to 1688). Fourth edition. Oxford University Press, 2016.

METHODS OF EVALUATION AND GRADE-WEIGHTINGS:

• primary source quiz - 10%
• essay proposal - 10%
• mid-term test - 20%
• essay - 30%
• final examination - 30%

*PLEASE NOTE: This is a preliminary web course description only. The Department reserves the right to change without notice any information in this description. The final, binding course outline is distributed in the first class of the semester.