This course explores the history of medieval England from the Norman Conquest of 1066 to the end of the Wars of The Roses in 1485. The conquest radically changed English politics and society. The new rulers drew the kingdom into the politics and conflicts of continental Europe. At the same time England expanded at the expense of its neighbors in the British Isles, and faced recurring internal conflicts among its aristocracy and royal families. Alongside the history of kings and battles, we will study the economic, social, cultural and intellectual life of the realm, the development of its distinctive political and legal systems, and the social and religious upheavals which rocked England in the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

Instructor bio: Robert Iafolla is a historian of the politics and political culture of late medieval Europe, focusing on the Kingdom of Castile and the Iberian Peninsula. In his recently completed dissertation, Castile serves as a case study for examining how political power possessed, or wielded, by rulers, nobles and other actors was defined amid disputes in the consolidating, yet contested, monarchies of late medieval Europe. While completing his graduate studies at UCLA, he enjoyed sharing the appreciation for the Middle Ages which underlies his research with students in the classroom.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills