Overview

This course explores the most turbulent period in British history: the seventeenth century, when civil war, regicide, and revolution swept across England and Wales and transformed peoples lives - for better and worse - forever. Students will study the political and religious upheavals in England and Wales in the seventeenth century, especially the social, cultural, economic, and intellectual fissures and tensions which shaped England and Wales in this period. It looks at the breakdown of the Stuart monarchy, the Civil War that followed, the execution of the king and the creation of England's only ever Republic, followed by the Restoration of the Stuart monarchy and then, in 1688, the Glorious Revolution which saw the beginning of the modern parliamentary monarchy we know today.

Week 1 - Early Stuarts Week 2 - Charles I Week 3 - Early Stuart Church Week 4 - Personal Rule of Charles I Week 5 - Breakdown of the monarchy Week 6 - Reading Week Week 7 - Civil War Week 8 - English Commonwealth Week 9 - Cromwell's Protectorate Week 10 - Restoration of the Stuarts Week 11 - James II Week 12 - Glorious Revolution

Assessment Strategy

-excellent -Excellent students (A- and above) will show strong achievement across all the criteria combined with particularly impressive depths of knowledge and/or subtlety of analysis. In written work, they will support their arguments with a wealth of relevant detail/examples. They will also demonstrate an acute awareness of the relevant historiography and give an account of why the conclusions reached are important within a particular historical debate. They may show a particularly subtle approach to possible objections, nuancing their argument in the light of counter-examples, or producing an interesting synthesis of various contrasting positions. Overall, the standards of content, argument, and analysis expected will be consistently superior to top upper-second work. Standards of presentation will also be high.

-good -Good students (B- to B+) will demonstrate a solid level of achievement and depth of knowledge in all the criteria in the C- to C+ range, and will in addition exhibit constructive engagement with different types of historical writing and historiographical interpretation. Ideas will be communicated effectively and written work will include a good range of sources/reading and demonstrate a clear understanding of the issues and of the existing interpretations expressed in a well-structured, relevant, and focused argument. Students at the top end of this band will engage with and critique the ideas that they come across, and synthesise the various interpretations they find to reach their own considered conclusions. Written work will be correctly presented with references and bibliography where appropriate.

Students in this band (C- to C+) will demonstrate a satisfactory range of achievement or depth of knowledge of most parts of the module, and will make successful, if occasionally inconsistent, attempts to develop those skills appropriate to the study of History at undergraduate level. In the case of the written assessments, the answers will attempt to focus on the question, although might drift into narrative, and will show some evidence of solid reading and research. The argument might lose direction and might not be adequately clear at the bottom of this category. Written work will be presented reasonably well with only limited errors in grammar, punctuation, and referencing, and not to the extent that they obscure meaning.

-threshold -Threshold students (D- and D) will have done only a minimum of reading, and their work will often be based partly on lecture notes and/or basic textbooks. They will demonstrate in their written assessments some knowledge of at least parts of the relevant field, and will make at least partially-successful attempts to frame an argument which engages with historical controversies, but they will fail to discuss some large and vital aspects of a topic; and/or deploy only some relevant material but partly fail to combine it into a coherent whole; and/or deploy some evidence to support individual points but often fail to do so and/or show difficulty weighing evidence (thereby relying on unsuitable or irrelevant evidence when making a point). Alternatively or additionally, the presentation of the work might also be poor, with bad grammar and/or punctuation, careless typos and spelling errors, and a lack of effective and correct referencing.

Learning Outcomes

• Assess and evaluate a range of historical interpretations, engaging with wider historiographical debates and understanding the way in which historians' views have changed over time, and why.

• Carefully constructed and cohesive essays, written clearly and formally. Well presented and accurately cited footnotes, supported by a wide ranging bibliography.

• Construct critically analytical historical arguments, producing a nuanced and evaluative discussion of key themes and issues, supported by a range of secondary and primary sources,

• Evaluation of primary sources from the period c1600 to 1700, placing them within their historical context and challenging the claims and the evidence they present, understanding the way in which the source's author and context shape its construction.

• Evidence a detailed knowledge and understanding of the key events, themes, and their significance in England and Wales in the period c1600 to 1700.