History

This is the story of the age of empire, the imperial rivalries of the great powers and the effects- for good and ill – on those countries which were colonised. Africa, Australasia and India of course figure prominently in the story. China and Japan, ancient civilisations for long a closed book to the west but […]

Continuing the story of Europe in the nineteenth century, we see how Bismarck in his later years sought to maintain a balance of power and how his successors, and Kaiser Wilhelm II, upset this through policies of naval and colonial expansion among other things. We also consider how France’s desire for “revenge” on Prussia, Russian […]

Following Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo in 1815, Europe’s rulers and diplomats strove to damp down dynastic rivalries and revolutionary tendencies within states. But international tension was not so easily controlled and new movements – nationalism, liberalism, socialism – presented fresh challenges. This course looks at the post-1815 world, the events leading to the “year of […]

When the Roman Catholic Church lost its ability to hold European Christendom together in the 1520s, a variety of reforming movements strove for supremacy with the Papacy and frequently with each other. We tell the story of Luther, Calvin and many others, of the Catholic Church’s attempts to reform itself from the inside and of […]

After the blood-letting of the Seventeenth Century, England in these years was internally peaceful but the period is no less interesting. We tell the story of the first two Georges, Kings whose political importance is sometimes underestimated; Sir Robert Walpole, generally regarded as the first British Prime Minister; Bonny Prince Charlie, the Young Pretender, his […]

Continuing the story of the Stuart monarchy, we look at the Restoration and reign of the “Merry Monarch”, Charles II and discover that behind the merriment lay a shrewd political operator. Charles was succeeded by his brother James II who was much less shrewd and lost his throne in 1688 to his son-in-law William of […]

When James I of Scotland came to the throne after Elizabeth’s death in 1603, the nation heaved a sigh of relief: the succession was secure. Less than fifty years later, James’s son Charles I was defeated in the civil war and went to the scaffold, paving the way for Cromwell’s military dictatorship. We shall examine […]