The First British Empire: the beginnings of English dominance, 1050-1300

Learning Outcomes

Cognitive Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• How ethnicity and nationhood have been recognised by historians and other writers
• Understand how to conduct comparative historical study
• Identify and evaluate different historical interpretations of past events
• Understand the value of comparative historical study

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Give oral presentations and actively take part in discussion
• Elaborate and express your ideas and critical reflections in essays, using primary and secondary sources
• Gather and digest relevant primary and secondary source materials including via electronic and web resources
• Engage in independent study and research

Knowledge and Understanding

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

• How the relationships between the nations of the British Isles have developed
• How identities in the British Isles have developed in relation to each other
• How modern politics has informed historical understandings of the relationships between the nations of the British Isles

Subject Specific Practical Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Evaluate and compare different genres of source text (e.g. chronicle, ethnography, romance)
• Understand how historiographical interests have developed over the last forty years or so from an Anglo-centric one to a more holistic British view

The developments of an English-based domination of the British Isles had decisive effects upon the politics and identities of the peoples of the British Isles as a whole, and those effects can still be observed in the modern identities and politics of these peoples. The differing levels of development attained by the various peoples were interpreted in strongly moral terms, as justification for colonisation and the imposition of control. Pro-Norman writers denigrated the Irish and Welsh in particular, using ideas about barbarism borrowed from ancient Roman texts to justify the dominance of 'civilised' peoples; the mix of ideas first used in the twelfth century formed the basis of later justifications of British colonialism in the new world and beyond. Others tried to describe the cultures of Wales and Ireland as a means of preserving them.

In this module, you will have the opportunity to look at the most decisive phase in determining the relations between the peoples of the British Isles, through examining the kinds of contact that took place and the kinds of societies that resulted.

In addition to lectures and seminars providing introductory sessions, essay tutorials and revision classes, topics to be covered will typically include:

Colonisation in the middle ages: themes and problems

Common history, common destiny?

Gerald of Wales part 1: How to define a medieval people

Gerald of Wales part 2: Politics and society in medieval Wales

The princes of Wales and the kings of England: Countdown to conquest

Ireland and its critics: the background to 1169

The conquest of Ireland and its ideologies

Ireland in the thirteenth century

Scotland, feudalism, and the impact of the Normans

Scotland and the formation of a separate identity

Teaching methods include:

• Short introductory lectures which may include some group work/participation
• Seminars focusing on the detailed reading and analysis of primary sources – these could be texts, images or objects

Learning activities include:

• In depth analysis of primary sources
• Preparatory reading and individual study
• Individual participation in seminars, group work and short presentations on seminar themes

Discussion in seminars will help you to develop your ideas on a topic, to analyse a range of source material and to articulate a critical argument.

The weekly seminars will provide you with a forum to discuss the primary sources and relate them to the historical context and the historiography. They will also allow for the development of interpersonal skills; through the use of class presentations you will be able to develop your knowledge and understanding of particular subject areas and to enhance your oral communication skills. The essay and exam will test your knowledge and understanding of the subject matter, your capacity to deploy interdisciplinary approaches and to develop a coherent written argument. In addition, the source-based focus of the essay and the exam will prepare you for the Special Subject and Dissertation in the third year.

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.