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History, Page 8

In the name of Almighty God, advance banners. Saint George, give us this day your help! – The battle speeches of Henry V

Shakespeare’s rendition of Henry V’s speeches on the eve of battle – at Harfleur and immediately before Agincourt – are among the most famous the stage has ever produced. So how close are they to reality? Anne Curry has written about this and her article, originally published in Reading Medieval Studies. A summary of it appears below, but the full article is now available for download as a PDF. Continue reading →

What Dennis Tito might learn from Apollo 8

 Following the announcement of a privately-funded mission to fly around Mars and back I have written a post on the Huffington Post reflecting on the legacies of Apollo 8, the first manned journey to another world.       On the Anniversary of Apollo 8 And so, with a single, masterful PR stroke, Mars has been restored to the reachable horizons of human spaceflight. Continue reading →

‘For I am Welsh you know’ – Welshmen, myth and reality at Agincourt

“Your majesty says very true: if your majestie is remembered of it, the Welshmen did good service in a garden where leeks did grow, wearing leeks in their Monmouth caps; which, your majesty knows, to this hour is an honourable badge of the service; and I do believe your majesty takes no scorn to wear the leek upon Saint Davy’s day.” Fluellen, Henry V, Act IV, Scene 7 For St. David’s day it seemed appropriate to address one of the abiding myths surrounding the battle of Agincourt. Continue reading →

“…a most uninteresting collection of farmers’ residences and cottages”

Earlier entries on this blog have discussed some early nineteenth century perspectives on the site of the battle with reference to the years immediately after the Battle of Waterloo, for the award of campaign medals and some early archaeological investigations. This account comes from John Gordon Smith (1792-1833), a Scottish surgeon attached to the 12th Lancers in 1815, was among those who was awarded his medals at Azincourt. Continue reading →

Agincourt on the BBC

Broadcast in September 2004, BBC Radio 4′s long-running series ‘In Our Time’, presented by Melvyn Bragg discussed the Agincourt with Anne Curry; Michael Jones, medieval historian and writer, and John Watts, Fellow and Tutor in Modern History at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. “Owre kynge went forth to Normandy, With grace and myyt of chivalry; The God for hym wrouyt marvelously, Wherefore Englonde may calle, and cry Deo gratias: Deo gratias redde pro victoria. Continue reading →

DHDL update

The equipment has now been installed for the Digital Humanities Distributed Lab. Two existing lab spaces at Avenue have been revamped. Digital Humanities Lab 1 (65/1085) has 9 imacs setup for time based media creation and editing. There is also a wall mounted screen and an apple TV to allow sharing of content from the imacs and other apple devices. Digital Humanities Lab 2 (65a/3043) is optimised for spatial and graphical digital humanities. Continue reading →