What was life really like for women in the medieval period? How did they think about sex, death and God? Could they live independent lives?  Few women had the luxury of writing down their thoughts and feelings during medieval times. But remarkably, there are at least four who did: Marie de France,...

We are saddened to hear the news that Charlotte 'Betty' Webb has passed away. Her role as a code breaker at Bletchley Park during the Second World War made her an essential contributor to the Allied success in the conflict. A gifted linguist and administrator, she also worked on secret...

It is five years since large parts of the world went into lockdown as Covid-19 swept the globe. It was the first pandemic in the modern era that resulted in an international co-ordinated response. Underlying this was a 21st-century understanding of health and disease. Importantly, internationally recognised bodies and NGOs...

As part of a project to identify and write biographies of all of the Jews of the medieval Lincoln Jewry, Natasha Jenman, Luka Liu, and Josh Outhwaite have been working on records of Jewish property ownership in the city across the thirteenth century. This allows them to identify those individuals who will be...

The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was once the largest political partnership of Europe. When Poland and Lithuania came together in the 14th century they became key to the politics and trade of goods and ideas across Europe and with Asia. The Commonwealth’s cultural, linguistic and economic influence ranged across Central and Eastern Europe...

March is Women’s History Month, so it’s time to pull out some of the great women of history. Only that is just a fragment of a not very representative picture – not least because many of the great women have already been written out of the popular narratives of history;...

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.  Why...

It is an ever-changing world and while some are celebrating the rainbow of LGBTQ+ others are simultaneously trying to wash it away. Here at the HA we are happy to be a champion of LGBTQ+ history. We are committed to a broad and inclusive understanding of history and are pleased...

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 Tibble explores...