Event Type: Branch

Takes Place: 27th February 2026

Time: 7.30pm

Venue: Lecture theatre, Reading School, Erleigh Road, Reading RG1 5LW (cars enter through Erleigh Rd entrance - contact Chris Sexton for the gate code)

Description: 2025 marked the 500th anniversary of the German Peasants’ War. This was the biggest uprising in Western European history before the French Revolution. Somewhere between seventy and a hundred-thousand people died, perhaps one per cent of the male population; thousands more took part. It stretched from down near Switzerland through Alsace, southern Germany, Thuringia, Saxony and around to Austria and the Tyrol. Over 600 monasteries were attacked. But most people in this country have never heard of it. Why? In this lecture Professor Lyndal Roper will explain why the German Peasants’ War is so important, and how it transforms our understanding of the Reformation. She will also talk about how it has been celebrated this year, and what this tells about the differences between the former East and former West Germany today.

How to book: Branch suppers precede each lecture from 6pm (cost £20 per person) and are held in the school’s refectory.

Price: HA members, students and school pupils free. Non-members visitors £3. Associate branch membership £10 per annum.

Tel: 01344 779321 or 07957 184342

Email: sexton44@gmail.com

Organiser: Chris Sexton

Lecturer: Professor Lyndal Roper (Oriel College, Oxford – and holder of Regius Chair in History)

Region: South-East England

Branch: Reading