By Madi East In the 16th century, England faced growing threats, particularly from France and Spain. In recognition of this, King Henry the 8th ordered the construction of new coastal defences, including Southsea Castle. The location of Southsea Castle was strategically chosen to overlook the main navigable channel into Portsmouth harbour, through the Solent. It was accompanied by a range of defences such as artillery, chain booms, and the use of natural features (like the sandbanks of the Solent) to their advantage. Any ship that attempted to reach the harbour would be forced into the range of the castle’s guns, making it an ideal artillery platform. [1] It is suggested […]
Author Archive | Fiona McCall
A heritage-lottery funded project to explore Black lives in Portsmouth
The Portsmouth Black History Group has been awarded a grant by The National Lottery Heritage Fund to fill a gap in the Portsmouth archives by documenting the experiences of the pioneering African and Caribbeans who made the city their home after the Second World War. Our own Dr Jodi Burkett, Senior Lecturer in History, who is the University’s current representative on the Portsmouth Black History Group, comments: “This project will add to a growing national picture of the role, experiences and importance of African and Caribbean people to the development of British society in the late twentieth century. It will enrich our understanding of the vast range of people who […]
How a history and politics degree prepared me for a career in communications at the Met Office
Like many history students UoP history and politics alumni Lucy Bricknell didn’t leave university with a clear plan of what she wanted to do next. But, as she explains below, she discovered that the skills in researching, analysis and writing she had developed in the course of her studies, prepared her well for a career in communications. When I graduated from the University of Portsmouth, like many graduates, I didn’t have a perfectly mapped‑out career plan. I knew I enjoyed research, writing and understanding the bigger picture, but I wasn’t yet sure how those interests would translate into a job. What I didn’t realise at the time was just how […]
Do not seek pleasure – guidelines for 17th-century widows
Last year our own Dr Maria Cannon won a fellowship to study at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington D.C. While there she came across a manuscript book, Of the Commendable Estate of Widowehoode, a translation of a 16th century Italian work which advises widows on suitable behaviour, and afterwards wrote this blog piece for the Folger Library blog. Let’s just say that having any kind of fun is out. While its lessons can appear restrictive and depressing to modern tastes, this lengthy guide reveals that women were responsible for negotiating their own behaviour, spirituality and relationship to God. https://www.folger.edu/blogs/collation/how-to-be-a-true-widow/
An Elizabethan clergyman side-steps scandal
After the Protestant Reformation, clergymen could marry, and increasing numbers did so out of inclination and to show they were committed to Protestantism. The Elizabethan Settlement of 1559 placed regulatory conditions on clerical behaviour, including marriage, although it was still controversial to the public and disliked by Queen Elizabeth I. Second-year UoP history student Madeleine East discusses this historical context using witness depositions from the Winchester Consistory Court, dated March 1571, relating to the marriage proposals of one Hampshire clergyman, a document that she studied for the second-year module Underworlds: Crime, Deviance & Punishment in Britain, 1500-1900 The document was made by ecclesiastical courts, which regulated moral behaviour in Early […]
The Royal Navy and the US/Iran War
This week our own Dr Matthew Heaslip was interviewed by multiple national and regional media outlets including ITV Meridian, BBC South Today and The Guardian to help contextualise Britain’s response via the Royal Navy to America’s war on Iran, specifically the practicalities of the deployment of the destroyer HMS Duncan. Along with being Senior Lecturer in Naval History teaching on Portsmouth’s MA in Naval, Maritime and Coastal History he is also a Visiting Fellow at the Royal Navy’s Strategic Studies Centre. Matt’s research centres on the 20th century Navy, the importance of naval power in Britain’s efforts to exert influence worldwide and its applicability to present-day global geopolitics. ‘When faced with […]