Zooming into 2023

Classes will run on a Monday afternoon at 3.00pm (London time) for 1 ½ hours. Please be in the waiting room at least five minutes before the class starts so that you are ready to be admitted into the virtual class room.

The next block of classes will begin in 6 February 2023.

Classes can be booked as individual sessions for £5 per session or as a discounted block of 7 for £30 in total. Presentations will be recorded and can be viewed for a limited time after the live session (subject to the technology.)

The Minority of King Henry III 1216-1232

Week 1: 6 February – The end of King John, the boy king and his regents

The critical situation of the kingdom in October 1216; King John’s journey to Newark, his death and what the chroniclers had to say about it. Henry III’s coronation and William Marshal’s reluctant acceptance of the regency.

The young king

Early allies

Week 2: 13 February – Securing the realm

1216-1219; defeating the French, Magna Carta and the restoration of Government.

Wiliam Marshal’s regency ended with his death but he secured a truce with France.

Half term – 20 February no class

Week 3: 27 February -Finding a way back from disaster

local lords and political rivalries; a triumvirate regency; the role of the papacy; settling the future structure of government; Isabel of Angoulême and Lusignan

week 4: 6 March- the restoration of authority

the king and his castles

Hubert de Burgh

The Council of Oxford

The Welsh

week 5: 13 March 1224 and 1225

confronting the new government; the siege of Bedford; losing Poitou; a campaign in Gascony and a tax on moveables.

week 6: 20 March Rebellion

– Wales

Richard Marshal and Richard of Cornwall

week 7: 27 March – the end of the minority, Magna Carta and the Forest Charter

The end of Henry’s minority was self declared and resulted in the fall of Hubert de Burgh.