Investigate historical events & topics in more detail in one of our 10-week online evening courses.
All courses takes place from 7pm to 9pm GMT via zoom.
Students joining our online courses would need access to a computer, laptop or tablet with a microphone (essential) and a webcam (desirable) as well as a reliable broadband connection. Please note that online classes will not be recorded.
Price: £125 for a 10 week online course
Autumn Long Courses
Starts Monday 28 September 2026: The Creation of the Northern English Counties
(7pm-9pm GMT, 10 weeks, £125)
After the Romans left, the new Anglian kingdoms of Bernicia and Deira eventually united to form the Kingdom of Northumbria, which expanded to cover not only all the old lands of the Brigantes, but also all of modern Cumbria and parts of southern Scotland. Its sheer size made it difficult to govern, and internal dynastic rivalries and civil wars made it vulnerable to Viking attacks. Northumbria was conquered by the Danes and Norwegians, before being partitioned and subsumed into the new Kingdoms of Scotland and England.
This course traces the history of the peoples of the northern English counties from the Roman period, through the “golden age” of Northumbria, to the Norman invasions.
Spring Long Courses
Starts Wednesday 20 January 2027: The Normans
(7pm-9pm GMT, 10 weeks, £125)
In 1066 William, Duke of Normandy, defeated the Anglo-Saxons at the Battle of Hastings and spent the next twenty years consolidating his conquest. But what was Normandy in 1066 and how had a band of marauding Vikings established their “land of the northmen” in northern France?
Duke William’s greatest achievement was the conquest of England, but who was he, and how did he expand the Norman territories in northern France before the Conquest? And what’s the connection between the Norman conquest of England and the Norman conquests of Sicily and Southern Italy? Which was the more stable regime; the Normans in England or the Normans in Sicily?
Summer Long Courses
Starts Thursday 22 April 2027: The Six Wives of Henry VIII
(7pm-9pm BST, 10 weeks, £125)
“Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived.” Is this really all there is to know about Henry VIII’s six wives?
Katherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard and Katherine Parr all became Henry VIII’s queens between 1509 and 1547. But who were these women and how have their lives been celebrated or vilified? Were Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard really adulteresses, and who was Henry’s favourite Queen?
This course examines the evidence to unpick the real stories of these exceptional women.