Medieval history
Medieval history at the University of Nottingham covers 500-1500
This thousand years spans the end of the western Roman Empire to the European Renaissance. A long period which encompasses the post-Roman states and new empires which formed the basis of many modern ones, the development of a powerful Christian church with all the associated transformations in morality, and relations between medieval Europeans and the wider world which created what is now often termed the ‘global medieval’.
Contrary to the tired stereotypical images of an age of misery and ignorance which the word medieval can sometimes conjure up, the Middle Ages is now generally regarded by specialists in positive terms as a time of great change and innovation, although by no means for all.
The department, which has been a vibrant centre of medieval research since the 1950s, has one of the largest concentrations of medieval historians in Britain who address the whole period in Britain, Europe and beyond from many different perspectives, including economic, political, social, cultural, religious and gendered. Collectively, we uncover what was distinctive and important about the medieval in European culture and explain why and how that distinctiveness makes the Middle Ages still matter today.
We have strong links with the publisher Brepols which publishes the international journal Nottingham Medieval Studies and the book series Medieval Church Studies, both edited in Nottingham.
The Department has strengths in the histories of medieval heresies and dissent across the whole period, in early medieval history both British and European, in late medieval English politics, in medieval business and commerce and in Jewish history. You can read more about some of our exciting recent and current research projects on the medieval period below.
Image: Section from Richard II meeting with the rebels of the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, Jean Froissart, Wiki Commons