HS1006: Early Modern England and Wales

School History
Department Code SHARE
Module Code HS1006
External Subject Code 100310
Number of Credits 10
Level L4
Language of Delivery English
Module Leader Professor Garthine Walker
Semester Autumn Semester
Academic Year 2015/6

Outline Description of Module

This module serves as an introduction to early modern English and Welsh history. As Wales and England were united as a political unit at this time, a comparative perspective is essential to a study of the nature and scope of the Tudor and Stuart state and the lives of the people – both rich and poor – who lived within it. This comparative approach will deepen your understanding of why things happened the way they did, and will allow you to explore the differences and similarities between different social and cultural groups within both Wales and England as well as between national groups.  Larger themes run through these topics and will be considered throughout the course: the extent to which the early modern period experienced a transition from ‘tradition’ towards ‘modernity’; the extent to which a process of social and cultural polarisation occurred, separating the better-off from their poorer neighbours; and the nature of political, cultural, linguistic, and ethnic relationships within the British Isles.

On completion of the module a student should be able to

  • To introduce students in broad terms to the nature of early modern English and Welsh society and culture.
  • To enable students to develop skills of evaluating the merits and demerits of alternative views and interpretations of various historical topics relating to early modern Welsh and English society and culture.
  • To encourage students to develop skills of comparative analysis by a consideration of political, cultural, linguistic, and ethnic relationships within the British Isles, especially those pertaining to Wales and England.

How the module will be delivered

The module will be delivered via a programme of lectures which will introduce students to the main factual and conceptual issues to be discussed and analysed during the module. Students are also required to attend seminars related to lectures, in which key issues and topics are analysed and discussed further.

Skills that will be practised and developed

Knowledge and Understanding:

  • demonstrate a broad knowledge and an understanding of the nature of early modern English and Welsh society and culture
  • demonstrate a critical understanding of a range of historical approaches used to analyse early modern Welsh and English society and culture
  • demonstrate a critical ability to gather, assimilate and interpret historical knowledge

Intellectual Skills:

  • demonstrate, as a necessary foundation for more detailed analysis in Years Two and Three, an understanding of concepts such as ‘modernisation’, ‘social polarisation’, and cultural, linguistic and ethnic differentiation
  • use a range of techniques to initiate and undertake analysis of information

Discipline Specific (including practical) Skills:

  • identify strengths, weaknesses, problems, and/or peculiarities of alternative Welsh and English historiographies
  • develop causal explanations of historical processes
  • demonstrate skills in comparative historical analysis
  • deepen understanding of broad themes and developments considered in the course through case studies of particular historical phenomena.

Transferable Skills:

  • evaluate the merits and demerits of alternative views and interpretations
  • formulate and justify their own arguments concerning broad issues and events and conclusions about a range of issues in the setting of seminar discussion
  • present, accurately, succinctly and lucidly, and in written or oral form their arguments
  • use a range of information technology resources to assist information retrieval
  • organise their own study methods and workload
  • work as part of a team in seminar or tutorial discussions

How the module will be assessed

Summative assessment takes the form of one 2,000-word essay (excluding empirical appendices and references).

Assessment Breakdown

Type % Title Duration(hrs)
Written Assessment 100 Coursework N/A

Syllabus content

Topics to be covered may include:

1. Degrees of people;

2. The household;

3. Rural and urban life;

4. The State: the Acts of Union;

5. The Reformation in England;

6. The Reformation in Wales;

7. Orality, literacy and print;

8. Music, morality and reform;

9. Magic and superstition;

10. Identities: Britishness;

11. Local government.

Essential Reading and Resource List

Please see Background Reading List for an indicative list.

Background Reading and Resource List

Philip Jenkins, History of Modern Wales,1536-1990 (1991)

J. Gwynfor Jones, Early Modern Wales c.1525–1640 (1994)

J.A. Sharpe, Early Modern England: A Social History (1987)

Alison Wall, Power and Protest in England 1525–1640 (2000)


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