The Vikings have turned from a monastic robbery into a power struggle for the crown. The Battle of Hastings 1066 marks the end of the Viking Age, but with the victorious Vilhjálmur a new era begins.

There’s no name better known in the world of Literature than William Shakespeare, and whatever your feelings about such dramatic offerings as “Romeo and Juliet”, “Twelfth Night”, “King Lear”, “Othello”, “Hamlet”, “Julius Caesar”, “Taming of the Shrew” or “Macbeth”, Shakespeare is impossible to ignore. Thousands of books have been written about Shakespeare and even though he lived over four hundred years ago, biographers and literary critics are still inspired to wax lyrical upon the subject in the 21st Century. What’s more there are as few facts as ever to go on, and by the very nature of history, it’s unlikely that any new and dramatic evidence regarding the life and times of William Shakespeare will be revealed. So what exactly is it that makes Shakespeare such a fascinating subject for speculation by each new generation to discover him? After all, the image we all recognize of Shakespeare is the perfect picture of Elizabethan respectability and far from being anything out of the ordinary. However, like all good stories, dig a little deeper and your efforts will be rewarded. Shakespeare’s meteoric rise from the humblest of beginnings to worldwide fame tells a tale of tenacity that is inspirational to this day and as we follow in the Great Bard of Avon’s footsteps, where there’s a will, when you’re talking about William Shakespeare, there’s most definitely a way.

Medieval England was proudly Catholic and ostentatiously loyal to Rome. But from the late sixteenth century until recent times – and even now – anti-Catholic prejudice has been a cornerstone of English and British identity. This lecture will look at how this prejudice grew out of the persecution of Protestants in the 1550s, at the idealistic historian who crystallised it, and at the political crises, real and invented, which turned his text into a paranoiacs’ charter.

Shakespeare's Mother The Secret Life of a Tudor Woman BBC Documentary 2015.

Alys Mackyntoich (Kingdom of the East) taught on the 12th July 2020. Household names are one of the more difficult and misunderstood types of name submissions in the Society. This class will give a brief overview of the kinds of documentation necessary for household names, discuss why some names work with some designators while others do not, and debunk some of the common myths about household names that often trip up submitters.

What weapons did the Vikings use? Here we look at the weapons most commonly used by Vikings in the middle ages, as well as some of the weapons that they DIDN'T use!

Life and times of William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke.

Pompeii: one of the most famous volcanic eruptions in history. We know how its victims died, but this film sets out to answer another question - how did they live? Gleaning evidence from an extraordinary find, Cambridge professor and Pompeii expert Mary Beard provides new insight into the lives of the people who lived in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius before its cataclysmic eruption.

Two thousand years ago one of history's most notorious individuals was born. Professor Mary Beard embarks on an investigative journey to explore the life and times of Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus - better known to us as Caligula.

Recreating festivities from Henry VIII's era, Lucy Worsley dresses, eats, drinks, sings and parties like it is 500 years ago - discovering long-lost traditions as well as familiar customs.