Early Modern

The 1601 Poor Laws are often viewed as the beginning of organised welfare in England; however, their significance extended beyond the provision of poor relief. By institutionalising charity, while expanding systems of local oversight, thislegislation reveals how welfare became increasingly intertwined with the governance of poverty. Although the Poor Laws introduced greater responsibility for supporting those in need, they also reinforced existing assumptions surrounding work

Introduction Despite his tenuous link to royal blood, Henry Tudor claimed the throne of England by right of conquest after defeating Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. However, the country that he inherited had been ravaged by the Wars of the Roses, with the crown changing hands seven times in just thirty years. Given the state of England, and the kings that preceded him for that matter, it was necessary for Henry VII to consolidate his power and control of gover

The study of enslaved resistance has often focused on acts of armed rebellion as evidence of enslaved agency and violent opposition to slavery. However, resistance against colonial authority was not always collective or dramatic. For the majority of enslaved people in America and the Caribbean, it took the form of acts of everyday resistance, which undermined slavery from within. Labour Resistance As enslaved populations were relied upon for their labour to produce cash cro

The Cambridge dictionary defines the word ‘revolution’ in a political context as "a change in the way a country is governed, usually to a different political system and often using violence." By this definition, the Reformation fundamentally does not qualify as a revolution. Nonetheless, the second definition frames it in a cultural context: "a very important change in the way people do things." Discussions of the Reformation's revolutionary nature become more complex. So why

The printing press should be considered a revolution. The invention marked the departure from the rigid Middle Ages that centred around the Catholic Church, to an ever-expanding, modernising world that began to prioritise the importance of literature and knowledge. The printing press began to spark ideas of revolution, most notably fuelling the Protestant Reformation, where Martin Luther’s 95 Theses directly challenged papal authority and the use of indulgences by the Church

Scotland renounced Catholicism in 1560, dismantling church hierarchies and replacing royal appointment of bishops with elected ones. The Kirk modelled a Presbyterian society on John Knox’s experience of Calvin's Geneva. With James VI becoming king of England in 1603, he aimed to unify the churches, but Charles I pushed further than his father had with reforming the Scottish church. In 1636 Charles, with encouragement from Bishop Laud, imposed the Book of Common Prayer on Scot

In 1649, England was in the midst of the greatest political upheaval in its history. The King was dead, the monarchy had fallen, and all the old certainties lay in ruins. As the nascent Commonwealth tried to assert its authority, radical movements with new ways of imagining England’s future began to emerge upon the fringes of the Revolution. The most radical of these were the Diggers who, led by Gerrard Winstanley, proposed fundamental economic change. Two hundred years befor

In the turbulent setting of fifteenth-century England – marked by the Wars of the Roses, in which the crown changed hands seven times over thirty years – few figures embody resistance as controversially as Margaret of Anjou. As Queen consort to the mentally fragile Henry VI, she faced significant opposition from the House of York, emerging as one of the most persistent political figures of the era. This article seeks to move beyond the traditional caricature of Margaret of An

Content Warning: This article contains detailed descriptions of torture, bodily mutilation, and execution. The early modern period has become synonymous with the witch-hunts that took place over the course of four centuries throughout Europe and Colonial America. Those who found themselves standing accused of witchcraft, predominantly women, were subjected to a rigorous process that often resulted in execution. As suspicions arose within communities, neighbours began to turn

The year is 1518. It’s the peak of a blistering summer. Strasbourg, one of the largest cities of the Holy Roman Empire, is gripped by a dancing mania. Blistered feet stain the streets with blood, sweat pours down jerking bodies, cries for help fill the air, the smell of heat stifles the city. Some dance in the narrow streets, some in the public square, some at home. Strasbourg was afflicted by choreomania: people were dancing themselves to death. One month earlier, a woman n

Today, we usually attribute misfortune and tragedy to chance or coincidence, not tending to read into such events for any underlying cause or significance, however the same cannot be said for those living in early modern Europe, who often turned to the supernatural for an explanation, which cultivated a paranoid and God-fearing society. Looking at fears surrounding the patriarchy, immorality and difference may therefore help us to understand why it was witchcraft that Europea

The Enlightenment is often viewed as a period of rationalised thinking, that sought to emphasise individualism and challenge the traditional authority. Those who promoted these ideals are often regarded as the ‘great Enlightenment thinkers’, and if I were to ask you to name me these people, you might suggest John Locke, father of liberalism; Voltaire, criticiser of religious institutions; or even Isaac Newton, the physicist who transformed our understanding of gravity and mot

Military History witnessed its fair share of innovators over the centuries. From Gaius Marius in the Age of Antiquity, to Napoleon in the Early Modern Era, it is an extensive list to be certain. One of these pioneers was Gustavus Adolphus. This 17th Century Swedish monarch, and his credibility as an innovator, cannot be understated. His actions elevated Sweden to a European military hegemon, laying the foundations for a new style of warfare that would define a century. Throug

In the tale of the French Revolution, how bad must you be to be referred to as the “worst person of this story” by Dominic Sandbrook? The Revolution featured the bumbling and incompetent King Louis XVI, the bloodthirsty Maximillien Robespierre and war criminal Jean-Baptiste Carrier - yet the man Sandbrook was referring was Louis-Philippe-Joseph, the Duke of Orléans, who would later rename himself as ‘Philippe Égalité’. A man born into one of the wealthiest families in France

At the height of the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, the world watched as anti-racist demonstrators in Bristol pulled down a statue of Edward Colston, a notorious slave trader, and rolled it into the harbour. This act was met with cheers and celebration from the protestors and many supporters around the country but was simultaneously viewed by others as an outrageous act of vandalism and a direct attack on British history. Two days later, the statue was removed fro

“Whoever comes to me will be free and equal, because I am freedom.” These bold words, uttered by the spirit of Poland (Wolność) in Adam Mickiewicz’s Pan Tadeusz, establish a clear parallel with the words of Christ upon which they are based. This association of Poland with a mission ordained from the Divine, and the longing for the values it once stood for, were common tropes in works created during the Romantic era. Yet to dismiss it all as a nationalistic overexaggeration wo

On the evening of the 20th of June 1791, five inconspicuously dressed figures exited the Tuileries Palace. These individuals claimed to be Madame de Korff, her two little girls, their governess, and the Baroness’s Steward. In truth, the group consisted of the French Royal family, with its head, Louis XVI, embittered and determined to break his family free from an incarceration enforced by his own subjects. They were headed for Montmédy, a town bordering France and the Austria

One of the most well-known aspects of the Salem Witch Trials is the seemingly random accusations of witchcraft and the supposed readiness of neighbours to turn against each other. However, these accusations were more than mere acts of finger-pointing. They arose from fears that one group in Salem Village had turned against the other. This article examines the patterns within these accusations and the divisions that caused them, using evidence from historians Boyer, Nissenbaum

Name a country that colonised the New World. Immediately, I’m sure you’ll think of the Spanish and their conquistadors: Hernán Cortés or Francisco Pizarro, laying waste to an entire continent in the name of plunder, glory, and God. Perhaps you’ll name the Portuguese, those other Iberian trailblazers whose efforts created the modern state of Brazil. There are, of course, the English, who held onto Canada long after every other European power had been thrown off the continent

There was much fear and anxiety during the reign of Elizabeth I over what would happen when her reign came to an end. Perhaps surprisingly then, when Elizabeth died in 1603, power was peacefully transferred to James I of England. The peaceful crowning of James was certainly not guaranteed, and many factors contributed to this relatively unproblematic transferral of power. There were actions performed by both Elizabeth and James which ensured that the country remained stable a