Last term, the Oundle Senior History Society was lucky enough to host a great range of speakers, who taught us about a variety of subjects, from early medieval history to the significance of sport to British history.
We began the term with a lecture by Dr. Marc Morris, a specialist in early medieval history, and historian behind the historical documentary ‘Castles’. Following last year’s talk on Edward the Confessor, Dr Morris focused on the aftermath of the Battle of Hastings and the Norman invasion’s profound impact on English society and architecture.
He opened by examining the Bayeux Tapestry, a unique source that provides insights into armour, architecture, and customs of the time. The lecture then explored William the Conqueror’s initial leniency toward the English nobility, which incited further rebellions, due to the English belief that they had not been fully defeated. These revolts prompted widespread redistribution of land, by which all but ten percent of the English subtenants were replaced by Normans. Dr Morris highlighted how this dispossession led to the rise of castle-building, with over 600 castles constructed during William’s reign, introducing a Norman architectural style that extended to churches, including the monumental Winchester Cathedral, the second largest in Europe at the time.
Dr Morris also challenged misconceptions, explaining that feudalism was not introduced in England by the Normans, who merely replaced the ruling elite with Norman lords. However, he noted that the invasion had the positive effect of reducing slavery, as recorded in the Domesday Book, with a twenty-five percent decrease in the enslaved population between 1066 and 1085.
However, Dr. Morris acknowledged the invasion’s costs, such as the destruction of many ancient churches, some built by people who went on to be canonised, and the human toll of rebellion and conquest, estimated at 100,000 lives. He also discussed the cultural gulf created by the abandonment of Old English in favour of French and Latin among the ruling classes.
Dr Morris’s lecture provided fascinating insights into the transformative effects of the Norman conquest while acknowledging its significant costs to English history.
The second talk of the academic year, ‘The Dickens Family and Divorce,’ was given by Dr. Christine Corton, senior member of Wolfson College, Cambridge, and expert on Victorian social history. The talk, shared between the senior History and English societies, focused primarily on the significance of divorce in Victorian society, and specifically, on its significance in the Dickens family. Dr Corton explained the draconian, by today’s standards, state of Victorian divorce law, and its considerable anti-women bias, with only four females able to obtain a divorce prior to 1857, as well as how this system forced both men and women to remain in unhealthy, perhaps even dangerous marriages against their will. This was shown by Dr. Corton through Charles Dickens’ family, with two of his brothers and himself each separating from their wives in differing ways. Augustus Dickens fled to America; Fredrick William Dickens fled to France after the divorce proceedings proved too costly for him, and Charles, after attempting to have his wife installed in a mental institution, came to an out-of-court separation settlement. Dr Corton fully outlined the fact that there was very little accessibility to divorce throughout the period, especially among the poorest in society, despite the 1857 Matrimonial Causes Act, which proved to be a huge issue for many until the liberalisation of these laws in 1920. Dickens proved to be hugely ahead of his time in this respect, being one of the only authors of the period to address such issues.
Joining us for the third talk of the year was Professor Jeremy Black, the author of a plethora of books ranging from eighteenth-century British politics to the history of the Holocaust, the subject of his talk last year. This year, Professor Black’s talk focussed on the American Civil War, showing the various factors – military, resources and political – which led to the Confederate defeat in the war. Professor Black concentrated on the initial gulf between the Confederate and Union armies, with specific reference to the poor Northern generals at the beginning of the war, a gulf which gradually closed over its course, culminating in the appointment of Grant as commander of the Union forces, thus completing the movement towards Union military superiority, and playing a considerable role in the union victory. This, according to Professor Black, paired with the political failings of the South and their belief that they would be able to win the war through the electoral victory of McClellan, ensured their eventual defeat.
For the last Talk of the Michaelmas term, we were lucky enough to have David Horspool, author of ‘More Than a Game: A History of How Sport Made Britain’, talking about the theme of his book. Mr Horspool outlined the history of sporting Britain, and the prolonged significance of sport throughout our history, dating back as far as the Middle Ages, when William the Marshal came to prominence through his sporting brilliance on the tournament circuit.
Mr Horspool outlined how sporting demographic changes represent wider societal changes, referring to the huge boost in the popularity of female tennis among both the players and the fans during the breaking down of previous gender norms surrounding women in work and in sport. He referred to the trailblazers of women’s tennis, such as Suzanne Lenglen, who garnered six wins at Wimbledon, and who was criticised at the time for her ‘indecent’ clothes. But Mr Horspool also outlined the barriers that remained to many women in sport, showing how the Lawn Tennis Association, while setting itself the post-war aim of getting a male British Wimbledon winner, entirely ignored the many, more successful female players.
Mr Horspool then moved on to the significance of British Boxing, and highly popular Jewish boxer Daniel Mendoza, who was even introduced to George III, as well as the high-profile African American former slave, Tom Molineux, who boxed against the British number one in front of 15,000 people in 1810. It was sporting events like this that helped break the traditional antisemitism and bigotry which were endemic in 19th century Britain.
Mr Horspool ended his talk by covering the national sport of Britain, football, and the huge importance of the sport to the national fandom. He showed the emotional importance of the sport, and the way it has acted as an emotional outlet for the country since the late nineteenth century, providing a forum for public signs of emotion, joy and violence in a way that no other sport or activity ever has, and therefore cementing its importance in British culture.
Altogether, thanks to the organisation of Mr Robinson, we have been extremely fortunate with the range and quality of the talks so far this year, all by such fantastic speakers, which have been enjoyed not just by those studying history, but also many others from around the School and the wider Oundle community.
