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In recent years there has been considerable historical discussion about the exact location of Bosworth field. It now seems that there is similar uncertainty about the location of the Battle of Hastings. This report from the BBC explains the uncertainty, and asks if it matters.

There is a link here to the earlier report on the Black Death. It is tempting to see the History of the Middle Ages as done (and dull ?). Nothing could be further from the truth. For me the very term is unhelpful. It is a huge 400 year period, which should not be generalised. Moreover, our understanding of it is still evolving.

An excellent BBC news report here on the he UK mainland’s first fully intact Viking boat burial site. It has been uncovered at  Ardnamurchan, is thought to be more than 1,000 years old.  Artefacts buried alongside the Viking in his boat suggest he was a high-ranking warrior. Archaeologist Dr Hannah Cobb said the “artefacts and preservation make this one of the most important Norse graves ever excavated in Britain”.

There are some excellent close up images of the finds in the Daily Mail report here .

In recent years there has been considerable speculation about the Black Death. In particular, some historians have argued that it was not actually Bubonic plague at all. A good introduction to this can be found in the Scott / Duncan book The Return of the Black Death . Other theories have even suggested that it might have been an early form of HIV. In this context, this article from today’s Telegraph shows again the growing importance of scientific methodology to the study of History.

If only I had paid more attention in Biology…

Mr Kydd.

There are many things I liked about Patrick Collinson.  I always viewed him as a proper historian who was greatly underestimated, not least becasue of his association with Sir John Neale. He did in fact have an original mind, and for me an attractive writing style. If you want a well organised orthodox view of Elizabethan parliaments, you could do a lot worse than read his 1967 text “The Elizabethan Puritan Movement.” You don’t have to agree with it to appreciate it.  There is an appropriate obituary from the Daily Telegraph here .

A really interesting article from the BBC on Churchill here. In it,  John Gray argues that “a strange conjunction of events…(Churchill’s depression)… his black dog – together with the intervention of a loyal friend during a few fateful days in early May 1940 – enabled Churchill to achieve the position from which he could alter the course of history.”

For us as A Level historians it raises a number of  questions.

1. What is the value of counter-factual History? IE, the what if questions such as what if the Spanish Armada had succeeded ? Is this no more than pub History, or a useful technical tool which allows us to consider the importance of events ?

2. How should we view the roles of chance and the individual in History ? Since I was doing my A Levels there has been a move away from focusing on the individual to broader themes such as the role of economic factors. Hence, where once we would have focused upon Cavour and Garibaldi to explain the unification of Italy, we now look more to ideas like nationalism. I have often wondered how the events 1940 and Churchill fit in here. Is it the exception that proves the rule ?

If you want to listen to the Radio 4 programme, then click this link.