This week the third year students studying module HIS3037, The Wars of the Roses, had the opportunity for a field trip to nearby Delapre Abbey, which as well as being a lovely stately home with pretty grounds is also very probably the site of the Battle of Northampton, a significant battle during the Wars of the Roses as Henry VI was captured at the end of it and taken into custody.
We were joined by Graham Evans, Chair of the Northamptonshire Battlefields Society, who was able to give us a very interesting guided tour of the battlefield site. While I am an expert in the fifteenth century I am quite happy to admit that military specifics are not my thing, and so was absolutely delighted that Graham agreed to join us and give the students (and me!) a very helpful overview of how the battle would have played out. He was also able to talk about the process of writing the new information boards that are now featured on the site, making the battlefield more accessible to the public (because let’s be honest, without some professional insights a battlefield looks just like… a field!).
After this, we were joined by my colleague Jim Beach, who is a historical board games enthusiast and had set up Kingmaker for the students to play. We had plenty of cakes to keep us going - including some made by one of our students! - and people soon got into the spirit of faction-forming, creating and breaking alliances and general scheming required to win this particular game of thrones. This time around it was a Yorkist victory and a good time was had by all.
However, it wasn’t an afternoon just for fun. The day’s activities are tied to the students’ first assignment for this module, which is to write a blog post exploring popular/public history in the context of the Wars of the Roses. So they might write on how history is communicated to the public in the new information boards on the battlefield site, or how playing a boardgame like Kingmaker might provide insights into this period of history that sitting in a classroom does not. I’m excited to see what they write!
HISTORY AT NORTHAMPTON 