History

After a successful year running my first year module The Medieval World 1200-1500, I’m delighted that this autumn I’m able to launch a year two module: Medieval Chivalry and its Afterlives.

Chivalry is a popular topic with students interested in medieval society. Who hasn’t been caught up in the romance of knights jousting for the love of fair maidens?

“God Speed!” by Edmund Leighton, 1900.

The image above is, of course, not medieval, but is by the Pre-Raphaelite artist Edmund Leighton, and is a perfect example of the swooningly romantic vision these nineteenth-century artists had of the medieval past. The Pre-Raphaelites imagined themselves as a brotherhood of knights, and saw chivalry as an entrypoint into a purer world.

This all sounds relatively benign, but the darker potential of interpreting the medieval world in this way can be seen in how modern alt-right figures have co-opted chivalry as a locus for white supremacist doctrine. In April 2019, Steve Bannon, former strategist for the Trump administration, did the media rounds, calling for united Western action against the Islamic world in language that clearly played on tropes of medieval Crusade. Bannon was not presenting a new perspective here. As historian and expert in the Crusades Christopher Tyerman has explained, “the idea that the Crusades were a battleground between distinct racial forces is a fantasy dreamed up by modern geopolitical interests”. I have written elsewhere on this blog about how right-wing racists in the UK have used Crusader slogans to deface Muslim spaces.

Alt-right online memes use chivalric imagery to promote their worldview. In this example, Presidents Trump and Putin attack Germany, which they see as too sympathetic to Muslims.

The chivalric code is invoked as a male duty to preserve (imaginary!) white European spaces from anyone who threatens their purity – which in the narrow-minded view of a typical online fascist means a lot of the population, since it includes people of colour, LGBT people, Muslims, liberals and people with disabilities. As Amy Kaufman argues, “What’s most ironic about the civilizational conservative movement is how eager its members are to become the very thing they claim to hate…. On inauguration night, Sebastian Gorka said he had a message for America’s troops in the Middle East: “The alpha males are back.” This rallying cry to the red-pill-swallowing “alt-right”, much like ISIS propaganda, uses the promise of heroic masculinity to recruit young men into their own bloody reenactment of the Crusades.”

In Medieval Chivalry and its Afterlives, students will spend a lot of their class time learning about what medieval chivalry actually was and what it meant for medieval society, but they will also spend time learning about how chivalry has been co-opted by different people across time for political, social and artistic reasons, and what we can learn about later societies by their understanding of the Middle Ages. We will be looking at art, literature and yes, even video games as we explore how the medieval became modern. In the wake of Black Lives Matter, this work feels even more timely and important.

I’m looking forward to rolling this class out – see you in September!

What medieval chivalry often was is actually downright WEIRD! Knight v Snail, from the Smithfield Decretals, southern France (probably Toulouse), with marginal scenes added in England (London), c. 1300-c. 1340, British Library Royal MS 10 E IV, f. 107r.

Welcome to History at the University of Northampton!

We offer an exciting range of degree programmes at undergraduate and postgraduate level.

• Our History undergraduate degree mixes academic study with ‘doing History’; on exploring how History has direct relevance in today’s global inter-connected societies and what this may mean for us as individuals. We support students to develop both their History learning and the development of practical employment and career skills to help them develop their futures.
• Our postgraduate courses offer further study opportunities to Masters and PhD level, as well as the opportunity to be part of a community of researchers.

You will be studying in an environment that is supportive, responsive, and above all: friendly.

Play the video to hear Culture Subject Leader Drew Gray talk about how we teach History at the University of Northampton.

Look around our website to learn more about our teaching and research, and do visit our blog to see regular updates by our staff and students.

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This weekend, the University of Northampton hosted the spring Council meeting of the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (BSECS). Delegates from across the UK gathered at Sunley Hotel for two days of discussion and planning.

This is the first time that the meeting has been held in the midlands, with meetings in recent years having been held in Glasgow, Newcastle and York. Prof Matthew McCormack from Northampton is currently President of BSECS, and he was pleased to bring the Society to the university. He added, ‘Northampton is a fine eighteenth-century town, with many notable buildings and one of the century’s largest market squares, so it was great to welcome eighteenth-century scholars to the the town and show them around.’

BSECS promotes the study of the global long eighteenth century, across all disciplines – including History, Literature, Art, Music, Theatre, Philosophy and Languages, among others. Every year it holds a large international conference in January and a postgraduate conference in the summer, and it offers a range of awards to support access for postgraduates and early career researchers in particular. It publishes the Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies and reviews of events and media at Criticks.

Northampton will again welcome a national organisation to campus on 11 June, when the Institute for Historical Research comes to campus. We will host a special session of the ‘British History in the Long Eighteenth Century’ seminar, when Prof John Coffey from the University of Leicester will give a talk about the Wilberforce diaries. Attendance is free and is in person or online. The seminar is at 3pm in SN111 and it will be preceded at 1pm by a walking tour of the town, meeting at the train station.

All Saints Church, Northampton. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Yesterday I gave a talk in possibly the most interesting venue of my career. The Brunel Museum in the east end of London got in touch because they had some buckles in their collection, which belonged to Marc Isambard Brunel (father of Isambard Kingdom Brunel). Northampton Museum had helped to identify the buckles, and the… Continue Reading →

If you have been to a library in Northamptonshire recently, you may have seen some pop-up museum displays! These were created as part of the project ‘Emotions, Gender and Material Culture: Historical Perspectives on Museum Collections’ at the University of Northampton, which was funded by the university. The project brought together historians, librarians, museum curators… Continue Reading →

As a follow up to my post about medieval horoscopes, here’s another fun exercise I did with students – this time second years taking my module Medieval Chivalry and its Afterlives. South Dakota parhelion. Photo Credit: Rick Bohn / USFWS We discussed how kings and nobles often took advice from astrologers about when to wage… Continue Reading →

Matthew McCormack from History at UON has published a book on Georgian shoes. Shoes and the Georgian Man is published by Bloomsbury. It is a full-colour book with around 80 illustrations, including images of many of the shoes that Matthew studied during his research. The book is available in paperback, hardback and ebook formats via… Continue Reading →

Pisces and Diagram for Friday (left) and Libra and Taurus (right) in an Astronomical Miscellany, shortly after 1464, German. Getty Museum, Ms. Ludwig XII 8 (83.MO.137), fols. 56v-57 As an (elder) Millennial, my generation loves a horoscope – while the generation that followed us, Gen Z, are markedly more sceptical about astrology. Most of my… Continue Reading →

Students on the steps at the British Museum Last week as part of our Welcome Week activities at the University of Northampton, we ran a free trip to the British Museum. A lot of our new students joined us, along with a few returning students who fancied a day out in London! Given this involved… Continue Reading →

[No spoilers!] I’m a big fan of the Alien film series. I have been hooked every since watching Alien 3 in the cinema as a teenager, and the original 1979 film is one of my all-time favourites. So I was excited to see Alien: Romulus, which is currently on general release. After several disappointing sequels… Continue Reading →

The Northampton branch of the Historical Association is run by the University of Northampton, and this year we are joining forces with the Leicester branch to provide a combined programme. The joint talks will be online but we are also keen to hear from local schools who would like to host an event. All talks… Continue Reading →

Matthew McCormack from History has co-edited a new book on new approaches to teaching the subject. Co-edited with Ruth Larsen (Derby) and Alice Marples (British Library), Innovations in Teaching History: Eighteenth-Century Studies in Higher Education is now out with University of London Press. The book contains seven chapters, which provide case studies for how to… Continue Reading →

We’re very excited to be hosting TWO workshops on the theme of politicised nostalgias this July! My initial call for papers generated so much interest that, in addition to our in person conference on 5 July, a week later we have an online workshop. The in person workshop is open to speakers only, as it’s… Continue Reading →

Yesterday I gave a talk in possibly the most interesting venue of my career.

The Brunel Museum in the east end of London got in touch because they had some buckles in their collection, which belonged to Marc Isambard Brunel (father of Isambard Kingdom Brunel). Northampton Museum had helped to identify the buckles, and the curator at the Brunel Museum had read my work on shoe buckles.

Staff and volunteers at the museum were also interested in the history of boots. Marc Brunel was famously horrified at the state of soldiers’ footwear when their returned from the Peninsular War, so resolved to invent a better process for their manufacture. He devised a machine that was so simple it could be operated by unskilled workers, and he employed disabled veterans in his factory in Battersea. They produced thousands of boots for British soldiers in the latter years of the Napoleonic Wars.

The museum therefore invited me to talk about my research on boots and shoes. They said in advance that the talk would be held in the tunnel shaft – which sounded intriguing – and that it might be chilly. But that did not prepare me for what I saw when I arrived.

The tunnel shaft at The Brunel Museum (author’s photograph)

The tunnel shaft is huge! In its day it had ornate wall coverings and a staircase, but it is now bare concrete, giving it a very industrial feel. It apparently gets cold the winter but it was pleasant on a warm March day. The acoustics are also interesting – it is very reverberant, like a church. It varies depending on where you stand and, just like the whispering gallery at St Paul’s, at a certain point your voice can be heard everywhere.

Originally the shaft served the Thames Tunnel, which was an engineering marvel when it opened in 1843, being the world’s first tunnel under a navigable river. Nowadays the tunnel is used by the London Overground, and every few minutes you can hear the trains of the Windrush Line under your feet. You can also hear the pump draining river water from the tunnel.

It is a wonderful space and the Brunel Museum uses it for lectures, concerts, performances and functions. It is also well worth visiting in its own right, as are the super museum displays in the Engine House next door. If you are in Rotherhithe, be sure to pay a visit.

Matthew McCormack

Regular readers of the blog will know that I am currently travelling around the country visiting museums as part of my project ‘Shoes and the Georgian Man’, funded by the Society for Antiquaries. I am studying surviving examples of shoes from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in order to explore the social significance of footwear in this period, focusing in particular on ideas about masculinity and the body.

I have long been interested in military shoes, and indeed I got into the study of material culture while researching my book on the Georgian militia, which included a chapter on uniforms. The challenge here is that so few of them survive. Whereas millions of shoes were produced for the armed forces, those worn by common soldiers and sailors were invariably worn until they wore out, and were then discarded. To study military footwear, you rely on objects that have survived for unusual reasons.

This is why I was so keen to go to Historic Dockyard Chatham in Kent. This trip had been over a year in the planning, and had been long postponed, partly because of the pandemic but also because the items that I wanted to view were on public display, so could not be removed from the cases until the site had closed for the season. In order to facilitate my visit, two curators very kindly gave up their time to retrieve the objects and supervise their handling.

Image used here courtesy of the Historic Dockyard Chatham

I was keen to visit this museum because they hold items retrieved from the wreck of HMS Invincible. This ship of the line sank in the Solent in 1758, was rediscovered in 1979 and subsequently excavated. These excavations turned up a huge quantity of articles from the mid-eighteenth century, which give an unprecedented insight into everyday life on board ship. Happily for me, the haul included many shoes.

The items I examined ranged from small fragments of leather and accessories like metal buckles, to complete shoes. You might expect leather items that had been under the sea for over two centuries to be in poor condition, and some were indeed heavily decayed. But others were in remarkably good condition, and looked little different to the shoes I have seen from the period that had been carefully stored. This is partly a fluke of the conditions in which they were buried, but is also of course a credit to the archaeologists, conservators and curators who have preserved them.

One of the best preserved shoes also happened to be of the greatest interest to me. It is a men’s shoe that would be about a size 4 today. It is straight lasted so could be worn on either foot – as were virtually all shoes from the period – but evidence of wear suggests it was consistently worn on the right. It would have been fastened by a buckle, which is now missing but its piercings are still visible on the two straps.

The construction is sturdy rather than fine, and this is utilitarian rather than fashionable footwear. It is therefore likely that it was worn by a rating, an ordinary sailor.

Image used here courtesy of Historic Dockyard Chatham

By eighteenth-century standards, the shoe looks comfortable and practical. It is squared at the toe (so would probably have been fine on either foot), and is fairly broad with a low heel. The leather uppers seem fairly supple, and the sole is relatively thin, so they would have been pleasant to wear and would not have impeded movement.

The usual image of Jolly Jack Tar is that he went barefoot. When performing tasks like climbing the rigging, bare feet would have been safer for the job as they can grip better, but sailors did in fact wear shoes on board ship and when going ashore. Material objects like shoes can therefore give us an insight into the everyday lives and experiences of sailors in the eighteenth century.

Matthew McCormack

Photo by Engin Akyurt on Pexels.com

We are proud to offer an exciting broad undergraduate BA programme in History at the University of Northampton.

From medieval knights and early modern servants, to country houses, hospitals and asylums, through to the trenches of the First World War and beyond, you can explore a thousand years of history from across the globe.

Studying History at UON will allow you to gain an excellent understanding of how historical events and attitudes have shaped the contemporary world, as well as to develop key skills which are valued by a  diverse range of employers and economic sectors.

The BA Hons History course is delivered by a friendly group of deeply knowledgeable staff whose expertise encompasses the history of politics, warfare, society, culture, economics, religion, class, age, race, medicine and health, crime, gender, emotions and sexualities.

You can study both the distant and recent past, local communities and global networks, learning how to compare diverse societies across time and space whilst learning to engage critically with different forms of evidence.

UoN History graduates emerge from their studies as intellectually enriched individuals who pursue interesting and rewarding careers.

Both full-time and part-time study options are available.

An Integrated Foundation Year (IFY) programme is also available.

New for September 2024: Interested in studying History but do not wish to commit to a full degree? Want to develop your knowledge in a particular area? We now have an option for learners to join our community on our first year modules.

To learn more about becoming an Associate Student, please contact the BA History course leader Dr Caroline Nielsen ([email protected])

Information on our course, modules and on how you will be learn and study at Northampton is available here.

We look forward to meeting you!

Students on the steps at the British Museum

Last week as part of our Welcome Week activities at the University of Northampton, we ran a free trip to the British Museum. A lot of our new students joined us, along with a few returning students who fancied a day out in London! Given this involved a 7.45am start after a busy, sociable week, we were impressed by how many students were ready to forego a lie in and join us on the coach.

Dr Tim Reinke-Williams gives students a tour

At the start of the day, lecturers accompanying the trip gave students tours around rooms that reflected their specialisms, and then after a lunch break, students had a scavenger hunt that took them through some of the ancient history rooms through to the Sutton Hoo exhibition. I wrote the scavenger hunt with quite open-ended questions, because I thought it was more engaging to have students think about and interpret the exhibited items rather than just searching for the “right” answers. We got some fun and interesting answers to the questions! For example:

Room 70 – the Roman Empire. What do you think is the most controversial item in this room and why?

The item I had in mind was the Warren Cup, because its scene of two male lovers meant that until homosexuality was decriminalised in England and Wales it was not put on public display. Some students said this, but I also enjoyed the response: “The goose, because geese scare me silly.” I went to university in York, which is famous for its aggressive geese, so Group 1: I feel ya.

This day out was just one part of a whole host of fun activities that ran last week, from a board games afternoon to a trip to the Northampton Museum and Art Gallery, as well as of course all the usual induction information events you’d expect. I really enjoyed taking part in some of these activities, and I hope the students did too! This week classes start, and hopefully our new first years have already started making friends with their course mates. Welcome to the University of Northampton! We’re excited to have you with us.

Interested in studying with us? Book onto our open days.

Read about our BA History programme here.

Read about our MA History programme here.

Dr Rachel Moss is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Northampton.

Recently reading James Boswell’s London Journal I came across a period when due to Gonorrhoea, Boswell decided to isolate himself from the rest of the world and society at large apart from a few select individuals who were permitted to see him. Boswell is most famous for his work as a diarist and biographer. His experiences during his ‘lockdown’ are an interesting reflection on our own troubled times.

His experiences reminded me of what we have been through and are still going through.  Although not our own choice but that of the government to risk the spread of infection, we were advised to stay home to save lives.

Boswell did this to get better and fight his infection. We too, have been in isolation, be it on our own or with select individuals whether they are from our own family or fellow housemates. Stuck in a house or several rooms with a limited supply of food.

At the start, there was a flurry of bulk buying when people went mad for toilet roll and hand soap. Now, these items are in plentiful supply upon the supermarket shelves as peoples understairs cupboards and garages creak with the weight of these items purchased in a mass panic.

Boswell decided to limit his diet during his isolation to help ease the disease he was battling. He limited the people who he was willing to see too. While many of us stayed at home and acknowledged the lockdown rules, others felt the need to bend them with many a story making it on to social media and the news about house parties and BBQs.

As the hot weather hit, people started to break these sanctions. in the local area, people started to congregate in large numbers at a site known locally as ‘the beach’. However, that again did not stop some from making unnecessary car journeys be it to walk their dog or to test their eyesight!

Boswell set great stock in his isolation, and although he allowed some people to enter his lodgings, it was a select few with whom he could have company and discuss the issues of the day.

We had social media, Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp to name a few different ways in which we chatted to people; Zoom calls went into overdrive in our desire to stay in touch with our loved ones and friends. Video calls became the order of the day for businesses to keep in touch with colleagues, and working from home became the new normal. We then started to use these social media platforms to vent our anger and frustration with the government and its handling of the situation. So many different opinions, comments, discussions and arguments across so many platforms.

Boswell discussed his frustrations with his friends, he was desperate to leave his lodgings he needed to get out there into the world back into society but knew it would be detrimental to his health, as did those who defied the COVID-19 lockdown rules.

Nevertheless, the desire was too strong and to stay put was not the answer. Boswell knew he was ill and battling an infection but he had promised his closest friends that they would attend every first-night performance at the theatre and he felt compelled to venture out to the theatre as it was the first night showing of Mrs Sheridan’s comedy.

Image: Macbeth at Covent Garden, 1760 (Oil on Canvas)

Boswell may have gained much pleasure out of his little trip out, but he regretted it the next day as he felt worse in his illness. Is this how others felt after being in lockdown and defying the rules by going out did they experience a little glint of pleasure by being able to go outside even if it might harm them?

I’ve seen many a person over the age of seventy going for a walk at the start of lockdown. I chatted to a lady in her nineties who told me she has been going out every day since lockdown because at her age wanted to enjoy every minute of the time she had left and did not want to spend them stuck at home alone indoors despite the apparent risks.

Have we forgotten about those on their own and isolated, the loneliness they must feel at not seeing others?: Loneliness under COVID-19 Lockdown There are others stuck at home in terrible situations that we cannot begin to imagine living with those who like to belittle and assault them: Domestic Violence during COVID-19 Lockdown. Their time in isolation must have been so traumatic. As humans, we are social animals; we socialise to gain a broader benefit. So I understand entirely Boswell’s frustrations of being shut off from the world but for the company of a select few and comprehend the need to go out see people chat to them and put the world to rights. Thankfully the lockdown is easing, and we can now go and sit in a friends garden or meet up all by socially distancing of course.

By Ursula Watkins, Second Year BA History

History is all about stories. The stories we tell ourselves about the past. The stories we tell ourselves about the past, about our communities, about ourselves.

The British Museum’s vast and world-famous collections hold multiple examples of stories around the globe. Some of these stories are easily accessible to us via the objects. Others are more obscure. Many objects record a fleeting moment of fun and joy, whilst many others testify to trauma and sadness.

Our History students at Northampton got a glimpse of these stories during our recent BA History course visit to the British Museum, London.

Photo ‘British Museum Panorama, London’, Ian Muttoo, https://www.flickr.com/photos/20741443@N00/569655372 “British Museum Panorama, London” by Ian Muttoo is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

The museum’s gleaning glass cases are full of rare moments where you can connect with a person’s history and occasionally with their thinking.

My favourite from the visit? The moment when an unknown person fastened two of their rings onto a single necklace chain in 5^th century Hoxne, Suffolk.

We probably all know someone who does this. We may have done it ourselves.

This act demonstrates the desire to protect a treasured item and keep it safe.

It raises so many questions about this person’s story. Did they wear the rings on the necklace beforehand, maybe as they were too big or as a treasured memento of someone they loved? The items are well-worn – they were loved once.

The rings themselves are damaged: the facets were removed before they were placed in the ground. What did they look like originally? What was the owners’ reaction when they realized that they may have to remove the ornaments?

Or did they do it just before placing the items in the ground to hide them from an unknown threat? Did they clip the rings onto the necklace just to make them all easier to find when they returned to dig them up at a later date? Were they worried someone else might take them?

This person never did collect their jewellery. It remained hidden with around 15,000 gold coins and other gems until its accidental discovery in 1992.

I love uncovering stories like this. I research the stories of those who largely expected to ‘die twice’ – once when they died and again once they passed out of living memory. The people who never expected to leave any trace on the historical record remains. The fact that they did so was largely the product of historical accident.

This was just my discovery at the museum.

I’m sure that every student on the trip had their own moment of discovery, ranging from the history of hieroglyphics to the weird and wonderful British Museum mermaid.

We run several trips across our BA History course, going to different historical locations.

Our students can take a tour around the history of London’s East End and Whitechapel area, following in the footsteps of the Whitechapel murderer. We learn together at Bletchley Park Museum about the history of the intelligence services and code-breaking, and at the Imperial War Museum.

Our second-years are off to learning archive skills first-hand in Northamptonshire Record Office in a few weeks!

 I’m confident that we will all make other discoveries in the coming years during them!