International Summer School

Research projects for 2025 will be added to this page mid November. Have a look at the projects from 2024 to get an idea of what projects may look like. 

Full details of topics below, along with suggested reading.

1. Evaluating Glasgow's Memorial Landscape 

2. Attitudes to Greek Resistance (1941-1944) and the Greek Civil War (1946-1949) in the British and Scottish Press

3. A Collective Biography of Scotland in the First World War

4. Britains’ Toy Soldiers: Representations of War and Conflict

5. When Scots Returned from India: Wealth, Race and Cultural Strategies, 1757-1820

6. Russian Autocracy: Ideology and Praxis, 1682-1906

7. Golden Liberty: Polish Political Thought from 1385 to 1795, and Beyond

8. Human and Animal Relationships in Early Modern Scotland, c.1500-1700

9. Echoes of Empire: Byzantine Culture and the Palaeologan Renaissance, 1261-1453

10. Medieval London and Queenship: The Cartulary of the Priory of Holy Trinity Aldgate

 

1.Evaluating Glasgow's Memorial Landscape 

After recent worldwide events focused on problematic elements of memorial heritage, a report aimed at providing guidance to public bodies titled ‘Reviewing Contested Statues, Memorials, and Place Names’ was produced in 2021 to provide ‘a fair, transparent process for reviewing and acting in relation to contested heritage’.  This project provides an opportunity to evaluate monuments erected in Glasgow during its time as the Second City of the Empire using the new guidance developed for public bodies.  Starting with archival sources, students are invited to first research one of Glasgow’s problematic nineteenth- or early twentieth-century portrait statues erected for the public in George Square or Kelvingrove Park to evaluate hidden or contested histories around the subject, as well as the intentions of the statue’s commissioners.  This evidence can then be evaluated through the 2021 guidance to determine possible courses of action a public body might take to ensure that history is neither obscured nor imposed in the built environment.  Along with applying case studies to contemporary debates in public history, student projects may also focus on interdisciplinary topics such as cultural memory, urban planning, art and symbolism, post-colonialism/decolonisation, and/or inclusivity in public heritage.
 
Secondary Sources:
 
Contested Histories in Public Spaces: Principles, Processes, Best Practices (London: International Bar Association, 2021).
 
Ray McKenzie, Public Sculpture of Glasgow, Public Sculpture of Britain (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2002), V.
 
Ronan Paddison, Marilyn Keenan and Sophie Bond, ‘Fostering Inter-Cultural Dialogue: Visionary Intentions and the Realities of a Dedicated Public Space’, People Place and Policy Online, 6,3 (2012), 122–32.
 
Paul A. Pickering and Alex Tyrrell, eds, Contested Sites: Commemoration, Memorial and Popular Politics in Nineteenth-Century Britain (London: Routledge, 2017).
 
Ben Stephenson, Marie-Annick Gournet and Joanna Burch-Brown, Reviewing Contested Statues, Memorials, and Place Names (Bristol: BAS Consultancy, Ltd., 2021).
 
Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History (Beacon Press, 2015).
 
Daniel J. Walkowitz, and Lisa Maya Knauer, eds., Contested Histories in Public Space: Memory, Race, and Nation (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2009).
 
Joanna Wojdon and Dorota Wiśniewska, eds, Public in Public History (London: Routledge, 2022).
 
Indicative Primary Sources:
 
Glasgow Corporation Minutes, Mitchell Library Glasgow City Archives.
 
Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland, Sederunt Book of the Committee of Subscribers to Sir John Moore’s Monument, 1809-1810, MS.2732.
 
Glasgow, Mitchell Library Glasgow City Archives, Minute Book: Gladstone Statue, Kelvin Statue, Roberts Statue, 1899-1917, G4.1.

 

2. Attitudes to Greek Resistance (1941-1944) and the Greek Civil War (1946-1949) in the British and Scottish Press

This research project focuses on the Greek Resistance (1941-1944) and the Greek Civil War (1946-1949) and their portrayal in the British and Scottish press. The project can examine specifically how the attitude towards the communist-led Ethniko Apeleutherotiko Metopo (trans. National Liberation Front) changed as the Civil War became more prominent following the liberation of Greece in 1944 and with Winston Churchill’s prohibition of any favourable mention of the EAM by the BBC in 1944. Attitudes towards the National Liberation Front and afterward the Dimokratikos Stratos Ellados (trans. Democratic Army of Greece) will be placed within the broader context of British policy towards Greece in the aftermath of the Second World War and the beginning of the Cold War. Working with their supervisor, students may choose to examine the efforts of the League for Democracy in Greece to create a counter-narrative surrounding the prosecuted resistance fighters in Greece and to ensure amnesty for all prosecuted democrats. Students are invited to use a variety of sources, such as archival documents, including from the National Archives, the British Newspaper Archive (available online) and the Marx Memorial Library.

Secondary Sources:

Amikam Nachmani, ‘Civil War and Foreign Intervention in Greece: 1946-49’, Journal of Contemporary History, 25.4 (1990), 489–522.

Gioula Koutsopanagou, The British Press and the Greek Crisis, 1943-1949: Orchestrating the Cold-War ‘Consensus’ in Britain (London: Palgrave Macmillan. 2020).

Martyn Brown, Politics of Forgetting: New Zealand, Greece and Britain at War (Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2019).

Robert Frazier, Anglo-American Relations with Greece: The Coming of the Cold War 1942-47 (London: Macmillan, 1991).

Panagiotis Delis, ‘The British Intervention in Greece: The Battle of Athens, December 1944’, Journal of Modern Greek Studies, 35.1 (2017), 211-237.

Loukianos Hassiotis, ‘British Public Opinion and Military Intervention in Greece, December 1944-January 1945: Stories from Mass-Observation’, Journal of Contemporary History, 50.2 (2015), 296–317.

John Newsinger, ‘Churchill, Stalin, and the Greek Revolution’, Monthly Review, 50.11 (1999), 48-54.

Indicative Primary Sources:

The British Newspaper Archive: https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/

Greece: Athens telegram No 177. Talk with Papandreou about Ethnikon Apeleftherotikon Metopo, FO 954/11B/312, https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C6559990 [Available online upon sign in]

‘Greece needs peace’, League for Democracy in Greece, https://marx.soutron.net/Portal/Default/en-GB/RecordView/Index/7045 , Marx Memorial Library, London.

Anthony Simmons, ed., They Shall Not Die. The Trial of Greek Freedom. Based on Letters from Betty Bartlett (London: League for Democracy in Greece, 1949). Available at the National Library of Scotland.

Leslie J. Solley, Greece: The Facts. Second edition (London: League for Democracy in Greece, 1946). Available at the National Library of Scotland.

3. A Collective Biography of Scotland in the First World War

This research project introduces students to the methodology known as collective biography which draws on the biographies of groups of individuals in order to explore wider historical networks and experiences. With the rise of digitisation and computerised analysis, there are increasing opportunities for the employment of this methodology, particularly using documents created between 1914-1921. Working with their supervisor, students will develop a small scale-scale study that draws on biographies collated during the 2014-18 Centenary. There is also potential to employ digitised genealogical and local history documents held in Glasgow’s Mitchell Library, the National Records of Scotland and the University of Glasgow Archives. Through this project students will relate individual experiences and connections to wider societal trends in Scotland during the First World War. Potential case studies could be based on local memorials, honour rolls, civilian businesses and institutions, social groups, military formations, and various other aspects of contemporary Scottish society.

Secondary Sources:

Methodology:
K. Cowan, ‘Collective Biography’, in Research Methods for History, ed. S. Gunn and L. Faire, 2nd Edition (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2012), pp. 85-103.

K. Verboven, M. Carlier and J. Dumoyn, ‘A Short Manual to the Art of Prosopography’, in Prosopography Approaches and Applications: A Handbook, ed. K. Keats-Rohan (Oxford: Prosopograpy et Geneaologica, 2007), pp. 35-70.

Background Reading:

E. Macfarland, ‘The Great War’, in The Oxford Handbook of Modern Scottish History, ed. T. Devine and J. Wormald (Oxford: University Press, 2012), pp. 553-568.

Example Studies:

P. Watt, ‘The Platoon: An Analysis of No.10 Platoon, 6th Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders in the First Battle of the Scarpe, 1917’, Journal of Army Historical Research, 91:368 (2013), 299-319.

M. Cornelis, ‘The Scottish Women’s Hospitals: The First World War and The Careers of Early Medical Women’, Medicine Conflict Survival, 36:2 (2020), 174-194.

E. Loarridge, ‘The University of Glasgow’s Battle of the Somme: Tracing Individuals in the Landscape of the Leipzig Salient’ (University of Glasgow, Unpublished MLitt Thesis, 2016), Chapter 2: Individuals, Relationships and Communities.

Indicative Primary Sources:

‘A Street Near You’, astreetnearyou.org

Friends of Glasgow Necropolis, Online First World War Roll of Honour Biographies https://www.glasgownecropolis.org/rollofhonour/

Roll of Honour of the Citizens of Glasgow Who Died in the First World War https://www.firstworldwarglasgow.co.uk/index.aspx?articleid=10950

 

4. Britains’ Toy Soldiers: Representations of War and Conflict

In the first half of the twentieth century, William Britains of London was one of largest toy companies in the world. Their hand-painted sets of lead toy soldiers were the LEGO of their time. Instantly recognisable, with a global reach, they dominated shop windows and children’s playrooms across the Western World. This topic offers students the opportunity to conduct research within the growing fields of Games Studies and the History of Play. Working with their supervisor, students will devise their own unique project based on the artefacts produced by William Britains between 1893 and 1965. Projects could draw on documentary evidence found in contemporary catalogues and newspapers, or take a material culture approach to the rich body of surviving sets and figures. Students may wish to focus on the clear link between toy soldiers and the military; or other aspects such as the implicit messages of empire, colonialism, racism, and gender inherent in these toys.

Secondary Sources:

K. Brown, ‘Modelling for War? Toy Soldiers in Late Victorian and Edwardian Britain’, Journal of Social History, 24:2 (1990), 237-254.

G. Dawson, Soldier Heroes: British Adventure, Empire and the Imagining of Masculinities (London: Routledge, 1994).

R. Duffet, ‘“Playing Soldiers?”: War, Boys, and the British Toy Industry’, in Children’s Literature and Culture of the First World War, ed. L. Paul, R. Johnston and E. Short (Abingdon: Routledge, 2016), pp. 239-252.

E. Loarridge, ‘War through the eyes of the toy soldier: a material study of the legacy and impact of conflict 1880-1945’, Critical Military Studies, 7:4 (2021), 367-383.

Indicative Primary Sources:

J. Opie, The Great Book of Britains: 100 Years of Britains Toy Soldiers 1893-1993 (London: New Cavendish, 1993).

Gamage Ltd, Gamage’s Christmas Bazaar, 1913 (Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1974).

Also have a look for ‘Britains’ in the ‘archived’ auction catalogues of Vectis Auctions themselves an unusual historical source. Vectis Auctions | Search

 

5. When Scots Returned from India: Wealth, Race and Cultural Strategies, 1757-1820

This research project explores Scotland’s participation in Britain’s expansion in India, from the battle of Plassey (1757) to the early 19th century. At a time of revolutions, global competition and endemic corruption, the involvement of Scots in the business of the East India Company, particularly prominent in commercial and military operations, was also visible in the transformations of Scottish society, landscape and culture. After years of service, during which they often adopted an Anglo-Indian lifestyle, most Scots returned permanently to their home country. Students are invited to evaluate the extent to which these returnees – known as ‘Nabobs’ – shaped ideas of race, family and social status at home. Working with their supervisor, students may choose a case study to explore the impact of Scottish involvement in India, drawing from a range of potential primary material (notebooks, wills, correspondence, official records). Students may also engage with material culture and visual sources to uncover the consequences of company service on the private lives of Scottish individuals (including perceptions of gender, class and race). Students are encouraged to use material from Scottish museums and archives to reflect on the much-neglected importance of colonial India in the early-modern period, and its legacies in contemporary Scotland.

Secondary Sources:

George K. McGilvary, ‘The Scottish connection with India, 1725-1833’ in Etudes Ecossaises, 14 (2011), 13-31.

Margot Finn and Kate Smith, eds, The East India Company at Home, 1757-1857 (London: UCL Press, 2018), 1-20.

Andrew Mackillop, Human Capital and Empire: Scotland, Ireland, Wales and British imperialism in Asia, c.1690–c.1820 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2021), chap. 7 ‘Returns: Realising the Human Capital Economy’, pp. 220-253.

Durba Ghosh, Sex and the Family in Colonial India: the Making of Empire (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), introduction, pp. 1-34.

Indicative Primary Sources:

Letter from John Homespun [Henry Mackenzie] to the Author, The Lounge, on the India-derived fortune of a Scottish lady, 28 May 1785.

Will of Sir Hector Munro, General in His Majesty’s Forces of Novar, Ross and Cromarty, 24 March 1786, The National Archives.

Sir Henry Raeburn, Portrait of Mr George Paterson of Huntly Castle (1734-1817), Perthshire, oil on canvas, Dundee art gallery and museum.

Johann Zoffany, Claud and Boyd Alexander with an Indian Servant, early 1780s, collections of the Richard Green Gallery, London.

East Asian basket with decorated dragon panels, owned by William Fullerton Elphinstone, director of the EIC, early 19th century, National Museums Scotland.

Ivory vase representing the Buddha (Sri Lanka), arrived in Scotland via Ceylon, isle of Arran, Brodick Castle.

 

6.Russian Autocracy: Ideology and Praxis, 1682-1906

This research project will examine the ideology and practice of Russian Imperial government from the accession of Peter the Great to the 1906 Constitution. Historians have debated the nature of the Imperial political system, with some depicting the Tsars as despotic and the Russian people as servile and oppressed, and others insisting on how autocracy was tempered by commitment to religious morality, concepts of honour, and a practical need to build consensus. Working with their supervisor, students will engage with primary sources (in translation) ranging from government documents to private correspondence, literature, and art, in order to explore how the Tsarist autocracy was conceptualised, and how these ideas related to the reality of the Russian people’s experience of it. Students may focus on a specific case study, such as the reign of a particular ruler, or a political/philosophical movement, such as the Slavophiles or Narodniki, and their relationship to Tsarist power.

Secondary Sources:

J. Burbank, ‘A Question of Dignity: Peasant Legal Culture in Late Imperial Russia’, Continuity and Change, 10:3 (1995), 391-404.

Paul Bushkovitch, A Concise History of Russia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), chapters 3 / 4 / 5, pp. 37-58 / 59-78 / 79-100.

S. Klimova, Russian Intelligentsia in Search of an Identity: Between Dostoevsky’s Oppositions and Tolstoy’s Holism (Leiden: Brill, 2020), chapter 1, pp. 7–62.

D. Lieven, ed., The Cambridge History of Russia, Volume II: Imperial Russia, 1689-1917 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), chapter 20, pp. 429-448.

B. Maslov, ‘Why Republics Always Fail: Pondering Feofan Prokopovich’s Poetics of Absolutism’, Вивлioѳика: E-Journal of Eighteenth-Century Russian Studies, 2 (2014), 24-46.

M.T. Poe, “A People Born to Slavery”: Russia in Early Modern European Ethnography, 1476-1748 (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2002), chapter 7, pp. 196-226.

E. Van Der Zweerde, Russian Political Philosophy: Anarchy, Authority, Autocracy (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2022), chapter 2, pp. 18-36.

Indicative Primary Sources:

Catherine II, Catherine the Great: Selected Letters, trans. A. Kahn, K. Rubin-Detlev (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018).

Konstantin P. Pobedononostsev, Reflections of a Russian Statesman, trans. R.C. Long (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1965).

 

7.Golden Liberty: Polish Political Thought from 1385 to 1795, and Beyond

“For our freedom and yours”, or some variation of this phrase, was a defining slogan for Polish patriots throughout the periods where Poland disappeared from the world map (1795-1918 and 1939-1945). By implication, it proposes that the Poles were not merely fighting for their own freedom, but for the very idea of freedom itself, conceptualising Poland’s struggle as epitomising, in the minds of Polish people, a universal human struggle for liberation. Students pursing this project will be encouraged to explore the origins of these ideas in the birth of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, in 1385, how they affected Poland’s political development, and how they influenced Polish intellectuals after the Commonwealth’s destruction. Further avenues for research might include how other events influenced, or were influenced by, this (such as the French Revolution), or how, paradoxically, the Polish elite’s obsession with freedom undermined the cohesion of the state, costing them the very liberty they claimed to cherish.

Secondary Sources:

R. Butterwick, ‘What is Enlightenment (Oświecenie)? Some Polish Answers’, Central Europe, 3:1 (2005), 19-37.

N. Davies, God’s Playground, Volume II: 1795 to Present (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005) chapter 1, pp. 3-59.

J. Filonik, ‘The Polish Nobility’s “Golden Freedom”: On the Ancient Roots of a Political Idea’, The European Legacy, Oct. 2015.

R. Frost, The Oxford History of Poland-Lithuania, Volume 1: The Making of the Polish Lithuanian Union, 1385 – 1669 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), part VI, 327-404.

J. Lukowski, ‘Political Ideas among the Polish Nobility in the Eighteenth Century (to 1788)’, The Slavonic and East European Review, 82:1 (2004), 1-26.

J. Lukowski, A Concise History of Poland (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019), chapter 3, pp. 107-170.

A. Waśko, ‘Sarmatism or the Enlightenment: The Dilemma of Polish Culture’, The Sarmatian Review, 17 (1997).

Indicative Primary Sources:

Jan Chryzostom Pasek, Memoirs of the Polish Baroque, trans. C.S. Leach (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976).

Andzej Frycz Modzewski, O Poprawie Rzeczypospolitej [on the improvement of the republic], tłumaczenie [translation] Cyprian Bazylik (Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Ktoczyta, 2016), selections in translation will be provided.

 

8.Human and Animal Relationships in Early Modern Scotland, c.1500-1700

This research project will examine the relationship between human and animal in early modern Scotland, introducing students to the discipline of historical animal studies. In this period, animals were a central part of everyday life; all stratas of society, from members of the royal court to the pastoral farmers who made up the majority of the population, interacted with animals daily, and they played a central role in cultural belief systems. Students will have the opportunity to explore themes such as religion and supernatural belief, hunting and violence, or dietary practices. In doing so, students will be invited to engage with the wider scholarship and methodology, which emphasises the value of decentring the human within the historical narrative and encourages the employment of a radically interdisciplinary supporting literature. Working with their supervisor, students will develop a research paper focusing on one aspect of human-animal interaction in early modern Scotland, utilising historical sources such as parliamentary acts and charters, church records, criminal trials, and account books. Projects may opt to focus on a particular region or decade, or may take a broader approach, considering belief or cultural practice over time.

Secondary Sources:

Linda Kalof, ‘The Renaissance’ in Looking at Animals in Human History, ed. Linda Kalof (London: Reaktion Books, 2007), chapter 4.

Sarah Cockram and Andrew Wells, ‘Introduction: Action, Reaction, Interaction in Historical Animal Studies’ in Interspecies Interactions: Animals And Humans Between The Middle Ages And Modernity, ed. Sarah Cockram and Andrew Wells (London: Routledge, 2018).

Pia F. Cuneo, ‘Introduction’, in Animals and Early Modern Identity, ed. Pia F. Cuneo (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2014).

Alan Stewart, ‘Government by Beagle: The Impersonal Rule of James VI and I’ in Renaissance Beasts: Of Animals, Humans, And Other Wonderful Creatures, ed. Erica Fudge (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2004).

P. G. Maxwell-Stuart, ‘Wild, filthie, execrabill, detestabill, and unnatural sin’: Bestiality in Early Modern Scotland’ in Sodomy in Early Modern Europe, ed. Tom Betteridge (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002).

Lizanne Henderson, ‘The (super)natural worlds of Robert Kirk: fairies, beasts, landscapes and lychnobious liminalities’, The Bottle Imp, 20 (2016).

Helen Smith, ‘Animal Families’ in Family Politics in Early Modern Literature, ed. S. Lewis and H. Crawforth (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017).

Indicative Primary Sources:

Julian Goodare, Lauren Martin et. al., ‘The Survey of Scottish Witchcraft’, http://www.shca.ed.ac.uk/witches/

Robert Pitcairn, Ancient Criminal Trials in Scotland (Edinburgh: Bannatyne Club, 1833).

David Beveridge, Culross and Tulliallan or Perthshire on Forth its History and Antiquities, vols 1-2 (William Blackwood and Sons: Edinburgh, 1885).

The Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, ed. and abridged by John Hill Burton and Dsavid Masson, vols I-V (H M General Register House; Edinburgh, 1877-80).

The Records of the Parliaments of Scotland to 1707, ed. K. M. Brown et al (St Andrews, 2007-2023), https://www.rps.ac.uk

 

9. Echoes of Empire: Byzantine Culture and the Palaeologan Renaissance, 1261-1453

This research project will examine the cultural power and influence of the Byzantine Empire during the so-called Palaeologan Renaissance, from 1261-1453. During this period the temporal power of the Empire was diminishing, but it remained an extremely vibrant and influential cultural force across Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean world. Students will be encouraged to engage with written primary sources (in translation) as well as images and objects to explore Byzantine influence within the Greek-speaking lands of the Rhomaioi, as the Byzantines called themselves, and the wider world. They may wish to focus on a particular artistic or architectural style, or on religious/philosophical movements such as Hesychasm. Other avenues for research might include how the Byzantine government exploited their cultural influence to offset their declining material resources using, for example, their status as the centre of Orthodox Christianity to manage their relationships with other Orthodox polities.

Secondary Sources:

T.E. Gregory, A History of Byzantium (Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, 2010), chapter 14, pp. 692-760.

C.J. Hilsdale, Byzantine Art and Diplomacy in an Age of Decline (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014), introduction / chapter 5, pp. 1-27 / 268-332.

D.M. Nicol, Church and Society in the Last Centuries of Byzantium (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979), chapter 2, pp. 31-65.

D. Obolensky, The Byzantine Commonwealth: Eastern Europe, 500-1453 (New York: Praeger, 1971), chapters 8 / 9, pp. 237-290.

Petrou Elias, ‘Intellectual relationships between the Byzantine and Serbian elites during the Palaiologan era’, in Byzantium in Eastern European Visual Culture in the Late Middle Ages, ed. Maria Alessia Rossi and Alice Isabella Sullivan (Leiden: Brill, 2020), pp. 71-90.

A. Vukovich, ‘How Byzantine Was the Moscow Inauguration of 1498?’, in Byzantium in Eastern European Visual Culture in the Late Middle Ages, ed. Maria Alessia Rossi and Alice Isabella Sullivan (Leiden: Brill, 2020), pp. 36-70.

D.C. Winfield and E.J.W. Hawkins, ‘The Church of Our Lady at Asinou, Cyprus. A Report on the Seasons of 1965 and 1966’, Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 21 (1967), 260-266.

Indicative Primary Sources:

Manuel II Palaeologus, The letters of Manuel II Palaeologus, trans. G.T. Dennis (Washington: Dumbarton Oaks, 1977).

Saint Gregory Palamas, The Triads, trans. N. Gendle (Mahwah: Paulist Press, 1983).

Saint Gregory Palamas, Saint Gregory Palamas: The One Hundred and Fifty Chapters, trans. R.E. Sinkewicz (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1988).

The project supervisor would also like to encourage the use of art and architecture as primary sources

 

10.Medieval London and Queenship: The Cartulary of the Priory of Holy Trinity Aldgate

The University of Glasgow Special Collections holds only one cartulary, that of Holy Trinity Priory, Aldgate, London. Cartularies, collections of documents gathered by religious institutions or families, are some of the most important primary sources for the study of local medieval societies before 1300. Aldgate’s cartulary is a crucial source for medieval queenship, particularly as its narrative history claims it was founded in 1108 by Queen Matilda, wife of Henry I of England, the last Anglo-Saxon princess and daughter and sister to kings of Scotland. The cartulary is also an important record of medieval London’s social and economic history.

Despite this significance, historians tend to rely on a published Calendar (a list of its contents) because the manuscript is in Glasgow. This project is intended to determine whether the cartulary would be worth a longer-term investigation and a fully published edition. Following engagement with the cartulary’s manuscript, students will formulate projects on the exercise of twelfth-century English queenship, medieval London, or the accuracy of the Calendar. Translations of the most important entries are available, but a willingness to engage with Latin with the supervisor’s assistance is desirable, irrespective of the student’s current ability. This project offers students the chance to interact with medieval manuscripts, gender and urban studies, as well as the potential to contribute to a prospective full edition of the cartulary.

Secondary Sources:

C. N. L. Brooke and G. Keir, London 800-1216: the Shaping of a City (Berkeley, Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1975).

Raymond Clemens and Timothy Graham, Introduction to Manuscript Studies (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2007).

J.C. Dickinson, The Origins of the Austin Canons and their Introduction into England (London: S.P.C.K., 1950).

Theresa Earenfight, ‘Medieval Queenship’, History Compass, 15 (2017), 1-9.

Judith A. Green, Forging the Kingdom: Power in English Society, 973-1189 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017).

Lois L. Huneycutt, Matilda of Scotland: A Study in Medieval Queenship (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2003).

Aidan Norrie et al., eds, Norman to Early Plantagenet Consorts: Power, Influence, and Dynasty (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2023).

Joanna Tucker, Reading and Shaping Medieval Cartularies: Multi-Scribe Manuscripts and their Patterns of Growth. A Study of the Earliest Cartularies of Glasgow Cathedral and Lindores Abbey (Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2020).

Indicative Primary Sources:

Cartulary of Holy Trinity Aldgate: Glasgow, University Library, MS Hunter 215 (U.2.6) [digitised: https://www.gla.ac.uk/collections/#/details?irn=296586&catType=C&referrer=/results&q=aldgate].

The Cartulary of Holy Trinity, Aldgate, ed. Gerald A.J. Hodgett (London: London Record Society Publications, 1971). vii.

Regesta regum Anglo-Normannorum, vol. II, ed. C. Johnson and H.A. Cronne (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1956); vol. III, ed. H.A. Cronne and R.H.C. Davis (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968).

English Episcopal Acta, 15: London, 1076-1187, ed. Falko Neininger (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999).

English Lawsuits from William I to Richard I, ed. and trans. R.C. van Caenegem, 2 vols (London: Selden Society, 1990-1991), II, no. 434.

Monasticon Anglicanum ed. R. Dodsworth and W. Dugdale, rev. ed. J. Caley, H. Ellis and B. Bandinel, 6 vols in 8 (London 1817-30, repr., J. Bohn, 1846), VI, pp. 150-165 [contains translations of some of the charters included in the cartulary].

 

 

This course aims to:

• Provide students with an opportunity to undertake a historical research project.
• Develop familiarity with historical methods and transferable skills in critical analysis, argument and oral presentation.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

• Assess scholarly literature and available primary sources to formulate a viable research question in History
• Contextualise and critically analyse primary sources to produce a convincing historical argument
• Express historical analysis and argument in written and oral forms.