The 2010 Ford Lectures III: William the Conqueror and empire

Fortified by tea with a friend, by now becoming a bit of a ritual, we both made our way to the Examination Schools in Oxford for the latest instalment of David Bates’ Ford Lecture series on the Normans and empire. For one and two, follow the links. The subject of number three, was William the Conqueror himself.

1066 or what on middle earth was that?

Yesterday and today Channel 4 broadcast a docudrama called ’1066: the Battle for Middle Earth’. The premise of the film is an interesting one, namely to show the effects of the battles of 1066 (Fulford, Stamford Bridge and Senlac Hill) on the ordinary people. The result is  something I thought impossible – Channel 4 makes 1066 boring.

Teaching Domesday Book

While Dr Jarrett has been busy listening to seminars on Domesday Book, I’ve been trying to teach the damn thing, again. Hopefully, this was the last time I shall ever have to do so, but Domesday Book is rather like a nasty, slimey something lurking under a stone. Pick up the stone and there it is, flapping its folios at you in a extremely menacing manner, with the remains of students and junior faculty who have tried to make sense of it and failed, scattered round about.