The HA Virtual Branch is a great way to keep your history up-to-date, whether you are working or relaxing, all from the comfort of your home. The Virtual Branch is free and open to everybody, and recordings of the talks are made available online after the event for HA members....

One of the HA’s aims is to bring you accessible and enjoyable history wherever you are based and whatever amount of time you have to dedicate to it. That's why we work to put together a regular programme of events with a variety of formats and delivery. You might prefer the social element of...

In this talk, Professor Smith will provide a preview of her current research, which explores the lives, reads and cultural undercurrents of Elizabethan England. What was influencing their cultural tastes and how much of it was new, or had it all been seen before? Emma Smith is Professor of Shakespeare...

Based on research from his book, Humans: the 300,000-year struggle for equality Yuval Harari has offered the view that early humans, out of necessity, lived in egalitarian, peaceful societies that represented true civilisation, standing on its head the notion that early societies were primitive and unsophisticated. His claim, however, that...

The religious wars of the Crusades are renowned for their military engagements. But the period was witness to brutality beyond the battlefield. More so than any other medieval war zone, the Holy Land was rife with unprecedented levels of criminality and violence. In the first history of its kind, Steve...

At its heart, throughout much of early modern Europe, witchcraft was a form of heresy and idolatry, the worship of someone or something other than God. While early modern witches were imagined to use their powers to harm their neighbours, it was their supposed rejection of God and worship of...

Witches and witch-hunts are still with us. In this session, we bring the course up to the present by looking at folkloric and fictional witches, and how historians’ representations of the early modern witch-hunt have changed over time. Witchcraft has been a staple of European folklore studies since the nineteenth...

Any study of the intercultural relationships between the Indigenous peoples of North America and British settlers usually focuses on the differences that resulted in disputes and violence. However, on closer examination, the interaction also involved the exchange of ideas and the forging of alliances, which required diplomacy and respect for...

Modern, non-invasive scientific techniques have revolutionised knowledge of medieval inks and pigments - from the most exotic, such as lapis lazuli and Egyptian blue, to the most ordinary, indigo and ochres - and of how they were used to create magnificent illuminated manuscripts. This talk will outline the techniques in...

Between about 1450 and 1750 perhaps as many as 100,000 Europeans, mostly women, were tried for witchcraft; about 50% of them were executed for their alleged crimes. Many of the trial records have survived and these are important resources for early modern historians. They give voice to people about whose...

Oliver Cromwell’s death in 1658 sparked a period of unrivalled turmoil and confusion in English history. In less than two years, there were close to ten changes of government; rival armies of Englishmen faced each other across the Scottish border; and the Long Parliament was finally dissolved after two decades....

We are pleased to welcome Dr Oskar Jensen to the HA Virtual Branch this September. In this talk Jensen will discuss how Red Lion Square had long been one of London's most genteel addresses, home to nobles, scholars, and professionals. But on 25 March 1818, one house on the south...

The Dudleys thrived at the court of Henry VII, but were sacrificed to the popularity of Henry VIII. Rising to prominence in the reign of Edward VI, the Dudleys lost it all by advancing Jane Grey to the throne over Mary I. That was until the reign of Elizabeth I,...

Witchcraft was primarily but not exclusively a female activity. About 20% of the people tried for witchcraft in early modern Europe were men; in some places, like Russia, Normandy and Iceland, men formed the majority of witch-defendants. Werewolves were also mainly men. The existence of male witches and werewolves challenges...

There were some regions of Europe that experienced very few witchcraft trials. This included the Celtic parts of the British Isles, in particular Wales. That did not mean that witchcraft and related practices were not an integral part of the local belief systems there. By exploring what witchcraft looked like...