Castles: Military technology and social change from the middle ages to the modern

Learning Outcomes

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• draw material together into cogent essays
• gather and analysing information from diverse disciplines and sources
• reflect on your learning and understanding across the module

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• determine the importance or otherwise of key developments in castle historiography
• explain how sources from different disciplines can combine to allow greater understanding of castles
• combine historical, archaeological and literary sources

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• the changing nature of the castle in society, and the multiple roles (social, political, economic, military) it played
• what meanings castles may have carried to the who lived in them, or next to them
• the ways in which castles functioned within different areas of the world (e.g. European, Crusader, Islamic, etc)

The following is an indicative list of the range of topics that will be covered. It may vary slightly year to year.

The origin of the castle, or, why were there no castles in the early middle ages?

Castles and feudal society: functions and form

The spread of castles around Europe

Castles, innovation and the Crusades

Edward I of England and the castles of the conquest of Wales

Castles and technology: the origins of artillery and changing castle design

Castles and aristocratic culture in the later middle ages

Henry VIII and the defence of the nation

Elizabethan and Stuart castles: changing functions

The end of the castle? Military obsolescence and changing social norms

Castles and the Gothic imagination

Revision and overview

Teaching methods:

• Lectures and seminar discussion
• oral presentations
• small group work within the context of the seminar.

Lectures will provide you with a general overview and understanding of chronology, sources and key concepts. This will be consolidated through readings and seminar discussions of primary and secondary source material. Presentations and subsequent group discussion in seminars will help you to develop your own ideas about topics, to analyse a range of source material and to articulate a critical argument.

Learning activities include:

• independent study of source material and secondary literature
• preparation for seminars with guidance from the tutor
• discussion of oral presentations.

In this module, learning and teaching activities focus on helping you to explore and investigate the ideas and themes outlined above. Throughout the module you will also engage in directed and self-directed study, for example through pre-seminar reading and through library research. The presentations (by you and your fellow students) and your reading will provide you with a broad overview of the secondary literature, using the bibliography provided at the start of the module. The discussion generated by these presentations will provide you with the opportunity to explore the relevant major historical debates on a weekly basis. In addition, you will study in depth a range of primary written and visual sources, as well as surviving material culture. These sessions will allow you to prepare for the assessment exercises. Feedback on your progress and development will be given via seminars and group discussions. Responses from tutor and your fellow students to your presentation will also give you formative feedback.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.