This lecture asks what weapons people owned in Henry VIII's England and whether they knew how to use them, some of its evidence drawn from coroners' inquests into accidents with bows, guns and swords. Exhortations to manly valour egged soldiers on to fight, but as in most wars before penicillin, more died of disease than from enemy action.
Oct 2019
Dan Jones, "Crusaders: The Epic History of the Wars for the Holy Lands" (Viking, 2019)
Much has been written about the Crusades, the religiously-inspired wars that pockmarked the later centuries of the Middle Ages. Yet for all of the many books on the subject there has been surprisingly little focus on the men and the women who were entangled in these conflicts. In ... Show More
40m 53s
Mar 2017
Fear and Loathing International Relations - Cyril Foster Lecture 2017
Although the 2003 Iraq War was linked to the "War on Terror" the case for the war was presented, at least in the UK, within the terms of the established framework of international relations, with the UN at the centre. The aftermath of the war pushed the UK into an arena in which ... Show More
54m 39s