Course Catalogue

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This course is a detailed examination, using contemporary chronicles, poems, art and architecture of the reign of one of the most successful and legendary of medieval rulers.

Tuesday 14-15 and Wednesday 10-12

Successful completion of Junior Honours in history

None

Assessment will be conducted by the submission of two essays (2000 words each, and 10% each), two seminar papers (6% each), assessment of in-seminar performance (2 x 4%), and by two 2-hour exams, one on core materials and the second on historical questions more generally.  The exam consists of two papers equally weighted at 30% of the assessment for each paper.

Reassessments are normally available for all courses, except those which contribute to the Honours classification. For non Honours courses, students are offered reassessment in all or any of the components of assessment if the satisfactory (threshold) grade for the overall course is not achieved at the first attempt. This is normally grade D3 for undergraduate students and grade C3 for postgraduate students. Exceptionally it may not be possible to offer reassessment of some coursework items, in which case the mark achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade. Any such exceptions for this course are described below. 

The aims common to all the Department's Honours Special Subjects are as follows:
1. to prepare students for independent and original analysis of a complex range of evidence, including source materials, thereby developing intellectual skills which will be of benefit in a wide range of careers.
2. to show students how a professional lhlistorian works.
3. to familiarise students, through source-criticism, with a wide range of problems of interpretation arising from different usages of language underlying meanings and intensions, differing standards of objectivity, and the variety of purpose and intent associated with historical evidence (written, visual or other).
4. to ensure, through student-led discussion, that the relative validity of alternative historical interpretations is fully recognised.
5. to encourage students to develop the confidence, imaginations, skills and self-discipline required to master a similarly demanding brief in the future, whether in historical research or in any sphere or employment where these qualities are valuable

By the end of this course students will be able to:

(i) demonstrate a good understanding of the major events and issues connected to the life and reign of

  Richard the Lionheart.

(ii) choose and evaluate different types of evidence relevant to the historical problems raised by the course;

(iii) demonstrate mastery of the subject by answering a range of questions, placing both primary and secondary sources in their historical context, and reconstructing the identity of the period.

(iv) make accurate comparisons of two or more alternative interpretations or renditions of a particular controversial event or historical development;

(v) demonstrate an ability to grasp, and make sophisticated comment on, complex and as yet

  unresolved historical debate;

(vi) present such comment in unambiguous, concise and effective prose in essays and seminar papers, or in verbal argument in seminars, incorporating a range of substantiating evidence;

(vii) have developed the confidence, imagination and self-discipline required to master a similarly

  demanding brief in any subsequent career.

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.