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Dress becomes her: the appearance and apparel of Elizabeth II
Historian article
She never carries any money but she does carry a handbag. The way that clothes and fashion choices made by HM The Queen are part of her modern armour and reflect her choices as a monarch as discussed in this article.
As debates about the relevance of the institution of monarchy within Britain...
Dress becomes her: the appearance and apparel of Elizabeth II
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Royal Women: Queen Anne, Elizabeth I and Elizabeth II
Royal Women
In June 2012 the Historical Association and Historic Royal Palaces joined forces to offer a fantastic CPD opportunity in line with the Queen's diamond jubilee. Two CPD events around the theme of Royal Women charted the private histories of queens of the past from within the walls of their palaces. What...
Royal Women: Queen Anne, Elizabeth I and Elizabeth II
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Recorded webinar: Virtual History Forum: Reigning over change
Article
These three recordings are taken from the Virtual History Forum which took place in March 2022 and focused on change over the last 70 years.
2022 marked the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. This is an unprecedented occasion in our history. The last 70 years have seen both continuities and...
Recorded webinar: Virtual History Forum: Reigning over change
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The Casket Letters
Article
In May 1568 Mary Queen of Scots was riding in fear for her life to the wilds of Galloway. She crossed the Solway confident that she would receive the help which her cousin Queen Elizabeth had promised her, but instead found herself a prisoner. In the subsequent months a series...
The Casket Letters
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Taj ul-Alam Safiatuddin Syah: a trailblazing Islamic queen
Historian article
Khadija Tauseef introduces the first of four successive sultanahs of Aceh during the seventeenth century.
As the sun sets on the glorious reign of Queen Elizabeth II, we pause and look back at the many queens that have contributed greatly to our historical heritage. While female sovereigns in Islamic kingdoms were a...
Taj ul-Alam Safiatuddin Syah: a trailblazing Islamic queen
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Recorded webinar: Maya ruler King Pakal II of Palenque
Article
The discovery in 1952 of the tomb of King Pakal II of Palenque has been called the most important archaeological find in the history of the Americas. Protected by a magnificently sculpted stone sarcophagus depicting Pakal’s descent to the underworld and re-birth as the maize god lay the body of...
Recorded webinar: Maya ruler King Pakal II of Palenque
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Film series: Tudor Royal Authority
Development of Tudor Royal Authority film series
In this film, Professor Sue Doran, Jesus College, University of Oxford, discusses provides an overview of how Tudor Royal Authority developed and evolved from the first Tudor King, Henry VII, to the final Tudor Queen, Elizabeth I.
Film series: Tudor Royal Authority
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Elizabeth I
Historian article
Susan Doran provides a fresh assessment of one of the most popular of British monarchs.
The Armada Portrait is deservedly the most familiar icon of Elizabeth I, presenting as it does an image of the queen which has been assimilated into one of England’s most enduring historical myths. Resplendent in...
Elizabeth I
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Henry V in the cinema
Historian article
Public attitudes to Henry V are very much influenced by WilliamShakespeare's interpretation. Richard Inverne discusses howShakespeare's version has been translated into cinematic form byLaurence Olivier and Kenneth Branagh.
Shakespeare indulges himself considerably with his own relatively recent history - Richards II and III, Henrys IV, V and VI, for example....
Henry V in the cinema
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Elizabeth I: ‘less than a woman’?
Historian article
Tracy Borman examines the femininity of the Virgin Queen.
Elizabeth I is often hailed as a feminist icon. Despite being the younger, forgotten daughter of Henry VIII with little hope of ever inheriting the throne, she became his longest-reigning and most successful heir by a country mile. In an age when...
Elizabeth I: ‘less than a woman’?
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History Abridged: Balmoral
Historian feature
History Abridged: This feature seeks to take a person, event or period and abridge, or focus on, an important event or detail that can get lost in the big picture. Think Horrible Histories for grownups (without the songs and music). See all History Abridged articles
Royal majesty is buttressed by...
History Abridged: Balmoral
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The Establishment of English Protestantism 1558-1608
Classic Pamphlet
The Reformation which Queen Elizabeth and her ministers created was a series of acts of state, but if we consider it only at the level of official hopes and pronouncements, we will paint a picture of hopeless unreality. For the Reformation to success, the government needed to follow up its...
The Establishment of English Protestantism 1558-1608
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George III & America
Article
George III has had no reason to complain of modern historians. He has been cleared of the 'taint' of madness (though I had never realised it was a taint) and instead suffered from porphyria, arsenic poisoning or both. Romney Sedgwick cleared him of the charge of being backward and Namier...
George III & America
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Tudor queens: power, identity and gender
Historian article
Gregory Gifford investigates the cultural issues raised by the sixteenth century‘s reigning queens.
In 1877 when Sitting Bull led his Lakota people across the border into Canada, he told them they were entering ‘The land of The Grandmother’ – a wonderful phrase to express Queen Victoria’s matriarchal authority. Three hundred years earlier...
Tudor queens: power, identity and gender
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Queen Victoria
Article
A century ago Britain celebrated Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee – her reign having provided 60 years of stability at the height of Britain’s imperial power. Dorothy Thompson profiles the woman at the heart of the Empire. More than any other British monarch, with the possible exception of her one-time model,...
Queen Victoria
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Ferninando Gorges and New England
Classic Pamphlet
Sir Ferdinando Gorges (July 1565 - May 24, 1647), by some considered the "Father of English Colonization in North America", was an early English colonial entrepreneur and founder of the Province of Maine in 1622, although Gorges himself never set foot in the New World.
Sir Ferdinando Gorges was born...
Ferninando Gorges and New England
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Analysing Portraits
Student Guides
This resource is free to everyone. For access to a wealth of other online resources from podcasts to articles and publications, plus support and advice though our “How To”, examination and transition to university guides and careers resources, join the Historical Association today
The Elizabeth I Rainbow Portrait
See...
Analysing Portraits
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A woman of masculine bravery: the life of Brilliana, Lady Harley
Historian article
Sara Read introduces us to a woman who challenged expectations during the turbulent years of the early seventeenth century.
In 1622 a pious young woman with a highly unusual first name, Brilliana Conway, sat at her desk doodling her signature on her commonplace book. She had lofty ambitions for her self-development...
A woman of masculine bravery: the life of Brilliana, Lady Harley
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Queen Victoria as a Politician
Article
Even had Queen Victoria not presided over the achievements of the age which bears her name, her career would still hold a fascination for the historian. She was, for one thing, the solitary woman in a male political world. She was possessed of a personality at once perceptive and simple,...
Queen Victoria as a Politician
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Film: Berengaria of Navarre
History & Myth
In this talk Dr Gabrielle Storey discusses the life and times of Berengaria of Navarre, queen of England, lord of Le Mans, and wife of Richard I.
Berengaria of Navarre has been inaccurately labelled as the only queen never to have stepped foot in England. This talk will present new analysis...
Film: Berengaria of Navarre
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Film: Elizabeth I and Tudor Royal Authority
Development of Tudor Royal Authority film series
In this film, Professor Sue Doran, Jesus College, University of Oxford, looks at the two main challenges to Elizabeth I's authority: gender and religion. Professor Doran looks at the power of Elizabeth's personality, her relationship with her advisers plus the significance of religion and domestics politics to shaping her reign and...
Film: Elizabeth I and Tudor Royal Authority
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King Charles II
Classic Pamphlet
The conclusions of historians change over the years, not only as a result of the discovery of new evidence, but as a result of the changing times in which historians themselves live and work. We have become familiar with the notion that each generation of historians may have its own...
King Charles II
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Joan Vaux: a remarkable Tudor lady
Historian article
Joanna Hickson is a hugely successful novelist, specialising in historical fiction, and she describes herself as feeling that she actually lives in the fifteenth century. For readers of The Historian she explores and explains how she developed her understanding and knowledge of a highly significant Tudor woman who is a central figure in two of...
Joan Vaux: a remarkable Tudor lady
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Podcast: The Life and Significance of Alan Turing
Podcast
In this podcast Dr Tommy Dickinson of the University of Manchester discusses the life and significance of Alan Turing. Please note this is only the first section of the full podcast which is available to HA Members
Alan Mathison Turing, (23 June 1912–7 June 1954) was a British pioneering computer scientist, mathematician,...
Podcast: The Life and Significance of Alan Turing
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Bolingbroke
Classic Pamphlet
There were three Bolingbrokes: (1) The politician and minister of Queen Anne's reign, whose career ended with his flight to France in April 1715; (2) The exile, after his brief service under "The Old Pretender," who was permitted in 1723 to return to England, but not to his seat in...
Bolingbroke
