Overview

What is the United Kingdom? How did it come into being? What are the commonalities and differences between its component parts? Recent and ongoing debates associated with Brexit, campaigns for Scottish and Welsh independence, and an Irish border poll are igniting significant interest in the constitutional future of the United Kingdom and the relationships between England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. An understanding of the period c.1485-1707 provides critical insights into these questions. The objective of this Special Topic is to undertake a ‘four nations’ assessment of the early modern expansion of the English state and the cultural and constitutional creation of Britain.

The focus of the module is identity, language and culture; relations and interactions across the Atlantic Archipelago; governance and conquest; and the legislative framework contributing towards the formation of a British state. The module proceeds through a series of thematic and place-specific case studies analysing the construction, composition and character of ‘Britain’ and the identities of Wales, Ireland and Scotland between c.1485-1707, to be followed by ‘legacy’ sessions tracing the evolution of key themes, issues and questions from 1707 to the present day. This will include a continual assessment of how an understanding of the early modern context can contribute towards contemporary debates about the nature and future of post-Brexit Britain. It will be especially engaging for students specialising in the early modern period and more broadly to students interested in cultural and political history and the formation of identities.

Week 1 - Today’s context: competing versions and visions of Britain and Britishness in global perspective

Week 2 - Introduction: a) Key dates, debates and definitions; b) The medieval background: kingdoms and cultures

Week 3 - Wales, the Tudor and Stuart state, and the Cambro-British inheritance, 1485-1707

Week 4 - Ireland and the Tudor state: Catholicism, conquest and colonisation

Week 5 - The kingdom of Scotland and Anglo-Scottish relations before 1603

Week 6 - Reading Week

Week 7 - Imaging the nations: identities, languages and cultures

Week 8 - England and its regions: crown, government and locality in the 16th and 17th centuries

Week 9 - British consciousness and identity pre-1707

Week 10 - The War of the Three Kingdoms and its aftermaths, 1639-1662

Week 11 - Restoration, Revolution and Union, 1660-1707

Week 12 - Legacies: The United Kingdom(s) from 1707 to the present day

Assessment Strategy

Excellent Students achieving Distinction grades (A- and above) will show strong achievement across all 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 Merit (B- to B+) students will demonstrate a solid level of achievement and depth of knowledge in all criteria in the Pass (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.

Threshold Threshold (C- to C+). Students in this band 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 PGT 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.

Learning Outcomes

• Critically analyse competing scholarly interpretations relating to the construction, character and composition of the British state and British identities, and an ability to intervene in these debates.

• Demonstrate an ability to analyse contemporary sources in depth, set them in contexts, and to use them in overarching arguments relating to the themes and issues of the module.

• Demonstrate an ability to articulate sustained, informed and analytical historical arguments.

• Demonstrate in depth knowledge of connections and differences between England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales across the period 1485-1707 and the short- and long-term effects of these interactions.