History@Portsmouth

University of Portsmouth's History Blog

Author Archive | Fiona McCall

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An inventory of Henry VIII’s navy

By on September 8, 2023 in Public History, Research in Focus

UoP second-year history student Francesca Raine has recently had a guest blog published for the Mary Rose collections, discussing the Anthony Roll.  This list of Henry VIII’s ships was presented to King Henry VIII in 1546 by its creator Anthony Anthony, an official of the Ordnance.  Beneath each ship is an individual inventory detailing information on the weaponry, crew, and tonnage, an in-depth Tudor catalogue. This document holds the only illustration and final report of the Mary Rose from its active life.  Click here to read more.

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By on August 16, 2023 in Learning in Focus, Uncategorized

One of the questions we’re most frequently asked by students who will be joining us as first years in the autumn term is “What reading do we need to do to prepare for the course?” When you join us and register in September, you will gain access to all of our library resources, including e-books and journals – there is no need for you to spend money in advance!  But, it can be really helpful to keep thinking about History-related things over the summer. Members of the History team have put together this list of suggestions of things to read or listen to. For students joining us for the first […]

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Name and shame: how I reclaimed a lost identity

By on April 7, 2022 in Learning in Focus, Public History, Uncategorized

The history blog is very pleased to host this guest blog.  In it Jeremy Schultz explains the reasons behind his grandfather’s decision to change his Jewish surname at the outset of World War II, and his own recent decision to change his name back again.  Jeremy is a psychotherapist, and the brother of Deborah Shaw, Professor of Film and Screen Studies at the University of Portsmouth.  Jeremy’s family history illustrates many of the historical issues encountered by our history students in their study of twentieth-century history: the pogroms in Tsarist Russia that drove many Jews to emigrate; racial prejudice during the 1930s against Jews in both Germany and Britain; the […]

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Smugglers, servants, and students: transporting Catholic materials to post-Reformation England

By on April 4, 2022 in Uncategorized

On 9 March 2022 Dr Aislinn Muller from the University of Cambridge gave a paper in our History Research seminar series, looking at the circulation of Catholic devotional objects in post-Reformation England, a time when acts of parliament had banned them in the late-sixteenth and early-seventeenth century. She assessed the routes by which objects such as rosaries, agnus dei pendants, relics, and portable devotional images were smuggled into the country by merchants, students, and others travelling between England, Ireland, and continental Europe and the extent to which this constituted an act of subversion against the Crown. If you missed the paper, a recording is available here.  You will need the […]

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What’s in a name?: Etymology of Istanbul through the Ages

By on March 31, 2022 in Research in Focus

On Wednesday 9 February Dr Gemma Masson (University of Birmingham) presented a paper in our History Research seminar series on the history of the development and changes to the name of the city of Istanbul.  As well as explaining the constructions of these names, the paper placed developments in the city’s name within the context of their times. If you missed the paper, a recording can be viewed here.  You will need to input the password 2yqXH4S+.

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Don’t lose your head – surviving a dissertation on King Charles I’s killers

By on March 17, 2022 in Learning in Focus, Research in Focus, Uncategorized

Below, one of last year’s third-year students, Alex Symonds, gives some timely advice on how to survive writing your dissertation.  Alex’s dissertation was entitled “‘Cruel Necessity’: Understanding the Influences on the Commissioners in the Trial of Charles I”.  As Alex’s supervisor, I knew she had it in her to do very well, but my mouth dropped to floor once I began reading her work.  The dissertation was very bold in its arguments with an original central focus on humanising the regicides, as well as those chosen commissioners who chose not to sign the death warrant, who have been far less studied. Alex developed some sophisticated arguments around the role of […]

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