Course Catalogue

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This course seeks to explore the nature of aristocratic rebellion and changing royal responses to armed opposition from the Norman Conquest to the great Statue of Treason in 1352.

Two hours per week. This is one of the honours options in History and may not run every year. The options that are running this session are available on MyCampus.

Available to all students fulfilling requirements for Honours entry into History, and by arrangement to visiting students or students of other Honours programmes.

Assessment

Coursework - class essay (2,000 words) (20%)

Coursework - seminar presentation (6%) seminar contribution (4%)

Examination - 120 minutes duration (70%)

Reassessments are normally available for all courses, except those which contribute to the Honours classification. For non Honours courses, students are offered reassessment in all or any of the components of assessment if the satisfactory (threshold) grade for the overall course is not achieved at the first attempt. This is normally grade D3 for undergraduate students and grade C3 for postgraduate students. Exceptionally it may not be possible to offer reassessment of some coursework items, in which case the mark achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade. Any such exceptions for this course are described below. 

The aims common to all History Honours 20 credit courses are as follows:

1. To prepare students for independent and original analysis of a complex range of evidence, including source materials, thereby developing intellectual skills that will be of benefit in a wide range of careers.

Students' research capacity will be enriched by their introduction to diverse source materials and their oral and written communication skills enhanced in ways designed to address employers' expectations for highly literate and highly articulate graduates who are fully cognisant of a range of research tools.

2. To show students how a professional historian works.

By supporting students in the production of their essay and seminar presentation, students will gain first hand experience of the scoping and shaping of research projects and the challenges faced by historians in the pursuit of advances in knowledge.

3. To familiarise students, through source-criticism, with a wide-range of problems of interpretation arising from different usages of language, underlying meanings and intentions, differing standards of objectivity, and the variety of purpose and intent associated with historical evidence (written, visual or other).

The critical interpretation of key historiographical and theoretical debates relating to this subject will inform the close reading of sources. Provenance, perspective, context, intent and audience will be core considerations in students' interpretation of sources.

4. To ensure, through student-led discussion, that the relative validity of alternative historical interpretations is fully recognised. The seminars aim to encourage student-led learning and the facilitation of rigorous and informed debate.

5. To encourage students to develop imagination, skills and self-discipline required to master a similarly demanding brief in the future, whether in historical research or in any sphere or employment where these qualities are valuable.

Students will be encouraged to reflect on the range of generic research and communication skills they are developing over the course of this course in order to align their academic and professional aspirations and competencies and encourage reflective practice.

By the end of this course the student will:

1. Be able to understand, explore and evaluate the nature of political conflict and its expression in the Anglo-Norman and Angevin period.
2. Be aware of and able to assess the changing legal status of rebellion and developing notions of treason between the eleventh and mid fourteenth centuries..
3. Be able to appreciate the significance of developing ideologies of resistance and political reform during this period.
4. Have examined and be able to assess the value of primary source material (in translation) from the period with regard to its usefulness in reconstructing the legal, political and military aspects of baronial rebellion.
5. Be able to evaluate the historiography of the subject on the basis of extensive secondary and selected primary source material and come to his/her own conclusions.
6. Be able through a written essay, an oral presentation and an examination to show an understanding of the arguments and evidence relating to the subject.

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.