Module Code - Title:
HI4061
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REFORMATION AND THE MODERN STATE: EUROPE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
Year Last Offered:
2018/9
Hours Per Week:
Grading Type:
Prerequisite Modules:
Rationale and Purpose of the Module:
This module aims to give students a thematic and chronological overview of the history of continental Europe during the sixteenth century. It is intended as a gradual introduction for first-years into the early modern period, and covers a shorter and more manageable time-frame than the previous practice of teaching two centuries in one semester.
Syllabus:
The waning of the middle ages and the culture of the renaissance; the political geography of early modern Europe - republics, new monarchies and composite polities; Europe in the broader context of the discovery of America; diet, demography and disease; a society of estates - nobles, clergy, merchants and peasants; family life - birth, marriage and death; Charles V, Francis I and the Habsburg-Valois conflict; Luthers protest and the Evangelical movement in Germany and Scandinavia; Calvin and the second Reformation; capturing the hearts and minds of the ordinary people - preaching and literacy; the response of the Catholic Church - Jesuits, the Council of Trent and the alliance of Church and State; Wars of Religion in France and the Netherlands; Philip II and Spanish world hegemony.
Learning Outcomes:
Cognitive (Knowledge, Understanding, Application, Analysis, Evaluation, Synthesis)
On completion of the module, students will have gained:
A selective book-reading culture, allowing them to base their coursework on a variety of different scholarly sources.
An understanding of the social, cultural and political developments of the period.
A realisation that History is not just about what happened in the past, but also why it happened.
Students, who have successfully completed the module, will be able to:
Define the key themes in social, political and cultural history with regard to Europe in the sixteenth century.
Distinguish between an early modern society that was divided legally between estates, and a modern society of economic classes.
Understand the role of theology within the mindsets of sixteenth-century people
Acquire a discursive and analytical approach to History writing.
Affective (Attitudes and Values)
On completion of this first-year module students will demonstrate an appreciation of the importance of an especially formative period in European history.
Psychomotor (Physical Skills)
N/A
How the Module will be Taught and what will be the Learning Experiences of the Students:
On completion of the module, students will be enabled by the knowledge of actions past to bear themselves prudently in the present and providently towards the future.
Research Findings Incorporated in to the Syllabus (If Relevant):
The module will provide a basis for future research at the levels of Final Year Project and postgraduate work, because students will have been introduced to on-line and hard-copy bibliographical resources, and will have been taught the approach to correct History writing at university level.
Prime Texts:
Elton, G. R. (1999)
Reformation Europe, 1517-1559 4th edn.
, Oxford, Wiley-Blackwell.
Elliott, J. H. (2000)
Europe Divided, 1559-1598 2nd edn.
, Oxford, Wiley-Blackwell.
Bonney, Richard (1990)
The European Dynastic States, 1492-1660
, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Knecht, R. J. (2010)
The French Wars of Religion 1559-1598 3rd edn,
, London and New York, Pearson.
Euan Cameron (ed.) (2006)
The Sixteenth Century
, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Euan Cameron (1991)
The European Reformation
, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Robert Bireley (1999)
The Refashioning of Catholicism 1450-1700,
, Basingstoke and New York, Macmillan.
Other Relevant Texts:
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A bibliography of secondary and primary sources will be provided at the beginning of the module which includes online sources and materials.
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Programme(s) in which this Module is Offered:
Semester(s) Module is Offered:
Module Leader: