If you click here you will get the In Our Time website. Again a great chance to listen to historians debate.

In this edition Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 7th century saint, Hilda, or Hild as she would have been known then, wielded great religious and political influence in a volatile era. The monasteries she led in the north of England were known for their literacy and learning and produced great future leaders, including 5 bishops. The remains of a later abbey still stand in Whitby on the site of the powerful monastery she headed there. We gain most of our knowledge of Hilda’s life from The Venerable Bede who wrote that she was 66 years in the world, living 33 years in the secular life and 33 dedicated to God. She was baptised alongside the king of Northumbria and with her royal connections, she was a formidable character. Bede writes: “Her prudence was so great that not only indifferent persons but even kings and princes asked and received her advice”. Hild and her Abbey at Whitby hosted the Synod which decided when Easter would be celebrated, following a dispute between different traditions. Her achievements are all the more impressive when we consider that Christianity was still in its infancy in Northumbria.

• So what contribution did she make to establishing Christianity in the north of England?
• How unusual was it for a woman to be such an important figure in the Church at the time?
• How did her double monastery of both men and women operate on a day-to-day basis?
• And how did she manage to convert a farmhand into England’s first vernacular poet?

With John Blair, Fellow in History at The Queen’s College, Oxford; Rosemary Cramp, Emeritus Professor in Archaeology at Durham University; Sarah Foot, Professor of Early Medieval History at Sheffield University.

Mr Kydd.

If you click here you can listen to Radio 4’s In Our Time. As ever, it is a great opportunity to listen to historian debate.

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the original Iron Chancellor, Otto Von Bismarck. One of Europe’s leading statesmen in the 19th Century he is credited with unifying Germany under the military might of his home state of Prussia. An enthusiastic expansionist, Bismarck undertook a war against Denmark that has become a by-word for incomprehensible conflict. The British Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston, said: “The Schleswig-Holstein question is so complicated, only three men in Europe have ever understood it. One was Prince Albert, who is dead. The second was a German professor who became mad. I am the third and I have forgotten all about it.”After vanquishing Austria and France, Bismark led the new industrialising Germany, managing to remain in power for a further two decades. Bismarck said: “The art of statesmanship is to steer a course on the stream of time” and he founded one of Europe’s first welfare states but he was also known for his ruthless tactics, ignoring democratic institutions, dabbling in dirty politics, leaking to the press and bribing journalists.

• Was the unification of Germany a carefully planned campaign or a series of unpredictable events that Bismarck made the most of?
• Did his encouragement of militaristic nationalism bear fruit in Nazi Germany?
• What is his legacy today in contemporary Germany?

With Richard J Evans, Professor of Modern History at the University of Cambridge; Christopher Clark, Reader in Modern European History at the University of Cambridge; and Katharine Lerman, Senior Lecturer in Modern European History at London Metropolitan University.

Mr Kydd.