Celebrating 20,000+ subscribers - Q&A/AMA

hello and welcome back to the channel if you're new here hi you're very welcome this is reading the past and I'm dr. Kat and if you are new here might I suggest that you check out one of my other videos before you come back to this one because today we're celebrating the fact that this channel now has more than twenty thousand subscribers and we're doing that with an AMA slash Q&A session I asked you for questions and oh boy you delivered in numbers that I certainly wasn't expecting and so my wonderful patient and frankly long-suffering husband Jaime has compiled those questions into a list and he's going to be asking them for me now and he sat right there next to the camera I haven't read these questions so it's gonna be a surprise to me you're going to be seeing my first reaction and responses to them I do hope you're gonna enjoy this I'm really looking forward to it and once again thank you so much let's jump in so we've read the questions together into a number of things first theme looks at how history can be analyzed so with me reading the past Lisa asked the Victorians read history through their lens of progress and we read history for a lens of social justice devise lenses distort history do we lionize people who were unimportant in their time and demonized some people were generally good people born under legitimately horrible law wasn't customs his history of cafeteria for us to choose our heroes and villains if not is there such a thing as a sterile approach in history which I've used don't affect research I mean I think ultimately the study of history is always going to be political in some way shape or form it's going to be taught by people who have personal politics it's going to be weaponized by governments and curriculum and I think also your own personal experiences your own personal politics is naturally always going to affect the way you interact with explore and understand the world around you and the world that's come before what's important I think is that we always acknowledge that we are doing that is it possible to make completely sterile history yes I think it probably is I think it's possible to create something that knows no politics no national identity no gender or sex identity that is possible although I do wonder what it would teach us and how much it would speak to us we as teachers and as learners have to understand that what we're getting is perspective we're getting a person's perspective on a series of events that may be separated from them by many many centuries and is potentially as affected by what happened last week as by the event itself so if you want to know how women have interpreted their own actions education etc without the modern feminist lens well I mean that's a fascinating thought experiment and I wonder that myself if we were attempting to experience or understand the lived extreme in' if we were perhaps looking at suffragists and suffragettes campaigning for the vote and emancipation should we say and those things hadn't been achieved if we didn't have the vote if they haven't been emancipated how would we as women look back on the Pankhurst's at al well they've potentially be terrorists wouldn't they rather than freedom fighters they'd be the people that lost who failed to know their place so we have to respect that when we are looking at events in history it is written by the winners and so those events those histories could absolutely change our asked what advice or suggestions would you give to people who like learning about history but sometimes feel overwhelmed by the amount of information available what do you think is the best approach to learn about events or person history well nobody could expect you to be Google and so I would recommend that you stay with what interests you and fascinates you if parts start taking you down a path where you're starting to lose interest I would suggest you go back around and go back the thing you care about and if that takes you a different rabbit-hole that's wonderful and amazing and you might find the thing that you were less interested in it suddenly becomes vital and important and so you need to understand it to help boost your interest I don't think you have to keep rigorously focused on knowing everything about a particular year or decade or century or rule because that doesn't mean that you're a better historian if you focus on the minutia the thing that really grips you and you make that into your passion then that is what's right for you Wilma asked a very interesting question can you point out some of the repeating patterns that you have seen from the time of the medieval period early modern period into today yes it may not be a particularly popular one but it might also be one that we can all feel an affinity to in the current circumstance and something that I have seen is a recurring pattern is that when there are profound moments of social and political change for in quotes the greater good they tend to be preceded by a moment of incredible pain and suffering so what seems to alter the way the society functions is something that is seismic so war and plague sometimes one following the other now some more personal questions Clare and Gemma asked just tell us some little things about yourself where you grew up do you have brothers or sisters or your parents teachers where about an England leave from right I'm a North London ER born and bred I am an only child and my parents weren't teachers my father is an accountant and my mother for most of my childhood was as far as we're the only woman who was doing her job in the country because she was an MOT examiner and what if you have those in America but essentially it's somebody who is a mechanic for cars who test them to make sure they're Road worthy so she's a suitor service manager making sure that cars work so she's very mechanically minded Cindy wants to know have you done any work to see if and how you are related to any of the people you tell us about well Jamie and I did go down the route of spitting in the tube for 23andme other providers are available and this is hashtag not sponsored and I was absolutely heartbroken to find out that I'm not secretly related to a member of the royal family apparently I share a common ancestor for about ten thousand years ago with Louie the 15th I believe may be the sick think it was so distant that I didn't really pay attention to which thing it was I'm actually heartbroken by that but your DNA was far more fascinating in terms of its demographics mine was super boring asthma asked what time period are you specialized in I am a specialist in the early modern period so that's a quite baggy term most people were dated from around about the 1400s or a period known as the late medieval period some people go all the way up to the Enlightenment my particular period is Tudor through to Stuart a whole range of people in cleaning can go pammi no no Gina mikela bumblebee Joshua and tampoco Donna asked what is your background and when did your passion pastry begin was there one event that started all this probably not one event but I think a massive factor in influencing my love of history was my maternal grandfather who took a massive hand in raising me my mom went back to work when I was quite small so I was being cared for by my grandfather until I started school and he was incredibly passionate about history and so he would take tiny baby me to the Tower of London and I'm very very clear being taken to support Cathedral and walking up the stairs to the Whispering Gallery as a small caveat I will say that he probably did share things with me that were not appropriate for a three-year-old for example the particular ways in which Henry the eighth dispatched some of his wives using a sword and an axe that probably wasn't something that I should have known but I surely did Raquel was a nickel and vintage Michelle asked is there any advice for someone who may be on the fence or becoming a historian so sure self are then masters or PhD studies that you recommend or do you have any advice fellows and could you have rundown of your own experiences were studying history at a higher level of education if an individual is interest in history and is thinking or pursuing degree what would be the best method to study a particular time period independently well I think a lot of when it comes to choosing the degree massive factor is going to be the department if you already have a knowledge on what you want to focus on and you're looking to go to be a then my recommendation would be to go for something with the greatest breadth but to potentially pick an institution where you already know that there is going to be a focus on the particular area that you're interested in if you don't know yet which kind of history you want to focus on then I would go by how many modules you can see that appeal to you so have a little look at what they're offering see what the troops are doing have a look at the books they published and see if you think about they could fit for you as you move through with Marsden PhD if you find that passion that subject then really the key thing is finding the right institution with the right teachers who are going to be supportive who are going to be there for you in office hours who are going to be willing to answer emails and sit down and unpack things and a lot a lot of it is down to the department but also your fellow students so that's where the magic happens if well it's being in the classroom with people who inspire you and who challenge you and unfortunately you want what are you gonna know that until you rock up on the first day again lots of people asked can you talk a bit about your academic career thus far things such as which university you went to as an undergraduate where you completed your doctorate and what you wrote your thesis on how did you get your doctoral could you explain the education system in the UK well I'm probably a pretty rare example because I went the whole way through from BA to doctorate at the same institution I accept the University of Sussex all the way through so I lived in Brighton for a decade my thesis ended up being the full title is things necessary and unnecessary trash and trifles in early modern England so with that being said I suppose I'm a doctor of trash but I don't like to necessarily and that's that in a room and what it is to get a doctorate in the UK and I assume the Academy across the world is pretty similar the point of writing a doctorates certainly in a humanity subject is that you are able to prove that what you've done is a genuine original contribution to knowledge so you can't just rehash to regurgitate somebody else's work you have to put a new spin on it of course when you're looking at things like Shakespeare and the early modern world the court of the tudors me Elizabethans a lot of material has already been written so it tends to be that you focus on something really really nice hence trash and trifles and then once you've written your thesis which is around about 80,000 words you then have to go in and have a visor which comes from the latin viva voce in the living voice so you are defending your thesis your argument to two examiners it's certainly in the UK one is your internal examiner who works for your institution and make sure that all of the various things that your university wants are being here - and the of initial external examiner who tends to be a closer expert in the field of what you've written on and they ensure that your thesis meets those criteria that the argument is well thought out and that it's an original contribution to knowledge and then after that there may or may not be a pulse and if there is a pass it may or may not be with corrections some major some minor if you pass with or without Corrections you then complete those Corrections if there are them you then bind your thesis as mine is bound here and then it goes to your University you graduate your doctor that's how it works it's almost almost if you have a new specific memory you're fighting to defend your love of history with a teacher a friend or family member I don't think so I suppose I've been pretty lucky in that way or maybe just bloody-minded I mean I certainly been called a geek and a ped n't and people know that a great way to wind me up is to bring up a well-worn historical inaccuracy usually one that's been put around by a fictional program or film and they know that's going to get my eye twitching and me potentially losing my temper so I've definitely been goaded by people but they tend to accept me for all of my strange quirks I've never really felt the need to defend my love of history Elizabeth's question was during your studies were there any areas that you initially thought were boring or dry and then later change your mind about vice-versa any periods of sources that you thought you'd enjoy learning more about but I found I just studies became more specialized was there a period of history that you were sad to let go of also what is your dream primary source that you'd love to get your hands on oh boy oh boy right there's a lot there that's very very dense I think when I was first at university I was surprised that I can't find myself being more interested by a course on the novel and that sort of period of history going in to Victorian literature it just didn't grab me in quite the same way that early modern drama did I'd always enjoyed Shakespeare but it was at university that I became utterly unspeakably obsessed and by the second year of my BA I was already picking modules that were focused on that period which I don't think like necessarily thought was going to happen and I don't think I've ever given up looking at particular period of history I think that there's always time and space to dive in I do wish that I felt as a home in some other historical periods and particularly the Georgian period like I feel like I've got snapshots of it and I'd love to feel the same way and the same level of comfort with the Georgians as I do with the Tudors and shoots what's also a let's get my hands on I think this will probably not come as a surprise to many people who are interested in the period of history that I'm interested in I would love to be able to go into the Vatican into their library and have a look at Henry's letters to amble in even better as a side sweetener dish to that would be if alongside those some miraculous way we had her lost responses that would be that would be delicious to have those two things but I think I've got probably more chance to find the lost letters that I'm getting into the Vatican but you never know things could change Dima and Emily asked what you do for a living are you a professor the college or do you work for private organization well currently I do this for a living because the world's on shutdown and when I'm not doing this I'm a freelance academic so I lecture and I tutor and I also work as a historical interpreter and I've mostly do those things within heritage locations some of which are more closely tied to university institutions but in this country the term professor it's not something that happens because he teach the university you have to be elected or submitted to become professor so there's plenty people in English universities who are lecturing full-time who are what the American commemorative is tenure I think but they are professors because that's a different thing what is your dream course to teach something that doesn't exist but it would involve looking at swordplay and Shakespeare and perhaps all of early modern drama and it would be about occupying space so how the wearing of swords affects the way that people in travel each other in the real world but also on stage that's very off top of my head but that's cause I love stage I've Katherine and Melanie asked if you participate in historical events where you're dressed in Tudor attire would be your favorite period of dress to wear I have actually indeed been in historical costume and been involved in events because as part of my job as a lie costume historic interpreter we wear the costume have various different periods and I've actually worn cost you that's gone from the medieval period around edit the first all the way through to the 20th century so I have worn a fair swathe of different outfits I think probably the one that I felt the best in and the most sort of majestic and rightly so because she was indeed a queen was playing Caroline of Ansbach which he goes for a full Georgian court Mantua and if I can find a picture of me in that I might just insert it because that was brilliant so there was also a question about YouTube que hairless wanted to know what made you decide to start a YouTube channel I think actually I wanted to be able to communicate my love and passion for history but I also recognized in some ways my own limitations I've made a video on the fact that I am diagnosed with dyslexia so I find communicating in a written form quite difficult so I'm aware that I did write a PhD thesis but that was a blood sweat and tears event that required lots of assistance in terms of proofreading I have the ideas I know how to communicate them but I'm far better verbally that I am in written form so the YouTube channel felt like a fairly natural way to do it a lot of other people in my position probably would have made an online blog and typed up their ideas because they're more comfort in that way but that just wasn't who I was so that's why we're here now there are also lots of questions about shelves and books account asked about the objects on your shelf and how you acquire them right well I'm gonna own up to being a low-key Corder who does not like a flat surface a lot of the objects that are behind me have come from my husband because he did a lot of work abroad and whenever he would go away as I wanted to pacify me for his absence he would bring me back gift and so a lot of these are gifts that he's given me from being away some of them are also things we got on our honeymoon so reminds us of a really happy time and yes it's just it's things and trinkets that are meaningful to me that I've acquired over the years from various sources but a lot from my husband oh yes of course so I have actually had people mention watches the green thing and there was also a matching red thing as well these are little dinosaur puppets that we got for our wedding from a couple of our guests who did readings at the wedding and we got to keep the puppets afterwards so that's what that's wrong and it's a very happy memory it was the lovely dinosaur was the reading it was amazing it was beautiful it wasn't a dry eye in the house he wants to know where you found that lovely shelving system behind you IKEA hashtag my sponsor loved it loved bit like here flat pack is my oh if I'm not listening to true crime then the next thing I want to be doing is building flat pack it is where I find my Zen some people do yoga I flat back Simon asked if you've read them what do you think of the hill you man tell novels will fall bring up the bodies and the mirror of the lights base of life Thomas Cromwell I am currently working through mirror in the light I've just got it and I really like Hilary Mantel's telling it is of course historical fiction but it's really really well research historical fiction for me the first book Wolf Hall I really enjoyed her narrative technique where you're not quite sure who's speaking so you feel like you're listening at doorways and that isn't what happened so much in bring up the bodies and I can understand why it's quite an odd technique to use but for me I find incredibly compelling I suppose my only caveat is that in her rehabilitation of Thomas Cromwell which is definitely what she's doing I don't quite know why we have to demonize Thomas More as much as she does that's my only caveat but I think they're brilliantly written books and they are utterly fascinating Joyce asked who is your favorite author I don't never actually got a favorite author I really enjoy the work a lot of different people I think I love the way Helen Casta writes history I really enjoyed Neil McGregor's work on Shakespeare addresses world I like humans hell for fiction I enjoy true crime authors I wouldn't say that I've necessarily got a favorite author though Jackie wants to know what teacher or book inspired your love of history well the teacher who inspired my love history was my grandfather for sure and then going on from that being at university and having various tutors who wanted to put the work of Shakespeare and his contemporaries in its historical moment and having that freedom to be interdisciplinary and look at philosophy and material culture and art as a way to understand these plays and being able to expand my learning in that way that really really inspired me and in terms of books and authors I'm going to say again neo McGregor's shakes with restless world really showed me that this was a way to view history to teach history and to comprehend history to look at the objects and the texts and the time and I think it's fascinating sorry I asked if you could run through what is on your bookshelf behind you that also may well be a separate video but broadly speaking there is a method to the madness so what you can't see that the bookshelf stretches further we've got historical fiction theater text so both plays and also theory of performance then we've got novels here this is my Shakespeare history early modern period sections then we've got some sports books they're my husband's um Marquis de Sade I got that during my a-levels I was suggest to read that by one of my eye level teachers who said if we're going to talk about philosophy and ethics you best go away and read the Marquis de Sade and then we can start so seventeen-year-old me had her eyes opened that's for sure then we've got a true-crime some French literature in French that's my husband's because he was educated in France and then we've got some books on feminism anthropology so if there is a method to the general madness but it probably would do better to be organized more than it is I wanted to know are you writing a book or do you want to I have got a novel in my head that I have written bits of chapters for but not enough to be a book and I also have an idea for a most popular history book that is it's very very early stages but yes I do want to write a book and I have got them in me they need to come out of me Catherine pointed out but you mentioned in a previous video that you are dyslexic how would you encourage others with similar learning issues to continue with their education I think first and foremost it's about realizing that you can do it but it has to happen on your terms I've often said that when I look at my dyslexia diagnosis and what it's meant for me as a learner what really has happened is that my brain just doesn't function as well within the confines and constraints of what's expected of the modern curriculum education system I often said that if I'd been born a boy because I wouldn't have been educated in the same way otherwise but born a boy 500 years ago and I've been at university and most of the defenses would have been oral and they wouldn't have necessarily the expectation to write I would have been far better off also when I did have to write spelling wasn't standardized so nobody would have cared so that's the thing is it's not that you're broken it's just that the system you're a jigsaw piece it doesn't completely fit so you have to find a way to ask for the help and demand that the rest of the jigsaw pieces are cut so that you can fit in and that's your right because you're just as valuable and your contribution is just as valuable as anybody else's and in many ways because of the diversity of the way that you approach things you're a valuable addition and that is something that you need to hold on to those have a question from one of my favorite names subscribers to your channel crazy old bat wanted to know what are some of your favorite hobbies not having to do with history watching TV not historical in all any order and hanging out with our chinchillas sure you're simply what's your favorite color purple Christine absolutely loves your pinkish eyeshadow palettes could you let her know he likes it I think that what you talking about is actually a bronzer it's the laura mercier baked bronzer that I wear in my crease and so it's not actually an eyeshadow but I have repurposed it just in Crystal Mary Kacie and Rory once lovers wanted to know how you and I met it's even somebody who asked am i a serene as well well you're not a historian no your students your scientists your degree was in anthropology and how we met was between me finishing my BA and starting my MA I was working in a pub as a barmaid and for disclosure I was one of the world's worst barmaids could not get an order right to save my life they mostly kept me around because I was prepared to stop fights I think and in walked Jamie with a friend of his and it being Brighton I thought to myself well if they aren't a couple I'll have the little one and I did and 12 years later here we are we got married three years ago so we met in the March and by the August we were living together so we lived in sin for a good nine years and then we got married and still been great so we arrived at a section which is all about your personal preferences Hilary and Jason were wondering what do you think is the biggest myth they still widely believed in British history tablet finger Emily asked if an independent TV channel she did name a few came to you an unlimited budget and all of resource in the world while historical period or then would you like them to make a series about and what lens or viewpoint would you what it seemed through right if I could that there will be a topic within a period I would like to look at childbirth in early one in land and the potential differences of what happens for Reformation so how women are dealing with the pains of childbirth in a Roman Catholic England versus a Church of England England and what that means so I'd like one look at the medical history the birth of mankind what confinements like look at it on a class divide and also religious divide that would be excellent Alex wanted your personal opinion which dynasty ruled England the best now it's a multiple-choice question the House of Normandy House of Plantagenet Rogers House of Tudor house of stewards House of Hanover or a house of saxe-coburg Windsor why do you think that is I think in terms of success its saxe-coburg to Windsor which broadly speaking follows on from the Georgians because I think to successfully navigate the seismic political and social changes and the rise of mass media a 24-hour news cycle I think to successfully navigate that when you also aren't a Divine seen as a divine right monarch in within a constitutional monarchy to still have the sway they have that to me is a really adaptable it's successful Monica Jennifer Roxanne Terra and Tampa Kubala asked if you could have dinner with one historical figure who would it be there is a Georgian female beniker boxer called Elizabeth will concern Elizabeth Wilkinson Stokes potentially by her married name and I would love to have dinner with her possibly at a distance in case you tried to punch me because she seems to have been really successful as a fighter and if you could ask them one question what would you ask why are you seemingly unbeatable because I can't find any record of her ever having lost and if I were a Tudor figure I would sit down with Catherine Parr and I would ask her how much she felt she had to compromise to keep her kingly husband half and whether she thinks marrying him was worth it what's historical figure have you been affected by the most in your studies you would love to go back in time and meet one that we haven't already talked about maybe Lady Mary Wortley Montagu I think she'd be a good laughs and I think she also had seen and experienced things that to hear from a first-person point of view would be really amazing Alban asked if you could swap places with any historical figure who would you choose I think that living now is the best time to be alive I wouldn't ever want to swap whole life with a historical figure it's simply too dangerous but if I could see the world through the eyes of a historical figure maybe somebody who sits in the periphery so I made a video about hands hold boy I wonder if moving through the world or something like that where you're in these court circles but theoretically the risks are very low that would be pretty fascinating but I'd also want to be vaccinated and medicated up to the eyeballs to avoid the smallpox the sweat etc quite a few people asked about your favourite time periods of research do you have favorite type of history such as cultural political or intellectual history so my favorite time period is the early modern period I think it's kind of amazing crocks point in shifting ideals and standards and in terms the way I like to explore that history I very interested by material culture I think that objects are aspirational and I think that through aspiration and also objection what we reject we can find out a lot about the hopes dreams and fears of people of the past and that retains itself and is made evident to us in the matter as they leave behind I'm a fascinating question if you could uncover one historical thing right it's currently unknown which one would it be I could probably guess Oh I've refined a Cardini Oh Shakespeare's those play without a doubt I've made millions Tom and tampoco gonna want to know if you could look back and solve one historical mystery what would it be just one Prince the tale of what happened the amazingly named Lisa Gotham and shall I both looking for some travel advice what city are Berlin London perhaps which borough in England do you think has the most interesting the rich history in your opinion what is the one historical place or thing you've recommend seeing in or around London if you had to choose where do you think is incredibly special or historic some perhaps even underappreciated that's incredibly important so riches history borrow wise in London is what used to be known as the liberty of the clink which is around Southwark that has had a very storied history outside of London I think you've got go bath or York for amazing history I probably would pick baths myself because the Roman connection the Jane Austen connection and in terms of outside of England I think the one of the most fascinating places is probably Budapest they have got an incredibly rich history there which is your favorite out of King Hamor d8 wires on why I think she is a political animal she doesn't always get it right she perhaps gets it more wrong after Henry dies but the fact that she's a published author and also the influence that I believe she has on Queen Elizabeth of all the Tudor Queens do you have a favorite is the first here we asked who is the most underrated molecule why I'm not sure that I can answer that I can probably tell you I think the most overrated Manik is and that's Richard the first I think he the so-called Lionheart gets a lot of Lion ization as being this quintessentially English person but he hates it here and was rarely ruling em I wanted to know your favorite fiction queen is and why Bianca Del Rio because not today Satan interesting question from Alan who would be your most cut person history who was least understood my instinct is to go with Bess Hardwick but fortunately I think more and more we are seeing the various facets of her but yeah she's pretty exceptional and exciting as you wants to know who do you think is the most unjustly Billa noise Moloch in history in your opinion may be married first question from Murray if you go back in time and change one thing one events what would it be I mean I've watched enough time-travel movies to realize that if you mess with the timeline you create problems so I don't know if I actually in truth if the capacity was there if I would go back because you don't know what you're going to end up with I mean would I end up you know being part mosquito because I've messed the timeline I'm not for that but I think if I could actually change change something I would go back and suggest to Anne Boleyn that when he made her Marquess of Pembroke she just stopped there and then see what happens with history Melissa asked who is your favorite lesser-known noble person it's half me to know who see lesser-known noble person I think I've made videos of the ones that are probably my favorites so for example I'll better Stewart but as again best Hardwick who ends up being very noble I think she's probably one of my favorites he's a very unique question who is your favorite member of the kiss original lineup by we use knowledge is musical theater and nineties and noughties pop music so it's singing in the rain and then Spice Girls I know that kiss wear makeup and they have long tongues and gene Simmons is one of them so it's dope with him as being the one who's the winner some some questions about history and if possible can ease be answered in 30 seconds or less how did a small country like UK conquer many parts of the world its language become the most used colonialism that's how they the strength of the Navy and their willingness and capacity to colonize vast parts of the world for their own benefit sorry asked what is the biggest challenge women today compared with the challenges faced by women 150 years ago do you think there's a particular trait women of the past held but women of today have lost I think the challenges of women before emancipation is that they were property I think that now what women have to deal with is that misogyny is still alive and well but it's no longer socially acceptable so you have to try and see through the gauze of polite society I think that one thing that we've actually lost and we feel as a loss is our capacity to be in charge of our medical well-being and that kind of autonomy so the ownership of women of the physical garden for example but also the birthing room that has been lost to us of course the payoff is that it's been increasingly medicalised and therefore statistically safer but it has been taken completely out of our hands and we're just starting to regain that place once again Lady Liberty once it's know what is your opinion about a true identity of Shakespeare I believe based upon the evidence that I've seen that the man from Stratford the son of the Glover William Shakespeare is the author or co-author of the plays attributed to it Christopher wanted you to explain the titling system or rather what does each mean and of a hierarchical in nature so I'm taking that means kind of the lordship title sir Earl's Dukes yes they are hierarchical in nature and they some have to be for example like a royal Duke has to be the brother of a king for example they they do have a strata and to explain it more fully would require probably another video onto a topic which we both enjoy television Judy and Emily wanted to know what do you think about historical television shows like The Tudors rain and others do you find something enjoyable then yes absolutely this I think there's a kind of double edged sword to it so on the one hand they are really entertaining and they definitely inspire an interest in the historical period and that is incredibly valuable hope needs to be caution attached and I would like it if it was clearer that what it may be based upon historical events it is a fiction and I think it's important that people go away and do their own research to figure out what actually happened and what was fictionalized to move the story forward Katie wanted to ask a fun question who would you cast as your dream historical TV show assuming they'll do it well and accurately of course first of all let's think about what the TV show would be I think I'd like to do one on bed of boxes in Georgian London the men and women who are engaged in that really exciting sport and I'm thinking about the people that I've seen in historical drama that I think I've done an amazing job and people like Amory Duff Tom Hardy James Frain mark Rylance Natalie Dormer all of whom for me have taken a historical character historical figure they've put their own spirits but they've also in most cases offered options so they've not just gone down a singular on thinking particularly of Natalie Dormer portrayal of Anne Boleyn there are some historical accuracies in the Tudors but one thing that I really enjoyed was her performance because Anne wasn't vixen or victim she was a whole person and that's what I think it's really fascinating and if he's not fixed she's done well we can deviate from the known truth in whatever form that is and we can flesh out characters but let's make sure they actually are fleshed out on to a quick fire round about historical figures Teresa asked do you think King Emily a progressive dismantling the Catholic Church in England no even at his death no I think he still thought he was Catholic Jen asked do you think Elizabeth from Robert conspired to kill Amy possibly but I doubt it Linda asked do you think Queen Liz but at first was a man the busy boy story I don't have much truck with that one I did make a video on it well on lots of myths about Elizabeth Anna Lee it leaked christina wanted your opinion on catherine de medici she's not somebody that I know a lot about because my specialty is English history but incredibly compelling from what I do know so question which I know you've discussed recently someone asking for more information about Catherine Parr and Thomas Seymour's daughter Mary and how she sort of disappeared from history well that's one of the great mysteries I think the consensus is that she's probably passed away around the age of about to some suggest she may have grown up and got married I'm not sure of that I think she's probably she probably does quite young requests to tell them a little bit more about Warwick the kingmaker he played a good game he was incredibly powerful and I think ultimately he overplayed his hand and he would be a great character to look at in a whole video I don't think he's a quick-fire question kind of person with this week having been the anniversary of amber Lynn's death what could you say about poor marketing some poor musician Mark Smeaton almost certainly tortured to extract a confession on the promise that he'd either be freed or he would suffer a less horrible fate and be beheaded rather than disemboweled as the commoner that he was almost certainly died having lied about having slept with Anne Boleyn as far as I'm concerned there was a question about Queen Jane Grey and how she was written out of history because winners write history but she was still a Tudor Queen so is there more we can learn about her from this distance I think there probably is and I think it's it's very strange that she isn't known as Queen Jane to history I think that she leaves behind a legacy of somebody who literally had greatness thrust upon them didn't want it didn't seek it but when it was there she did her best with it and I think actually what happened was she was failed by those around her I don't think there's any Fault in her and she probably would have made a fantastic Queen at this nature who was the most independent of a known female personalities the Tudor period please I'm gonna promise go back to best of Hardwick I think what she achieves and the Welsh accumulates is amazing levels of Independence they've been asked if the bowling cup really did belong to an and then passed down to her daughter Elizabeth first why would she give it away to a doctor even for the good treatment he bestowed on her surely Elizabeth would have kept the cup as it belonged our mother I mean that's an excellent point of course it presupposes and assumes that that's all she had up her mother and also that she would have wanted to have a keepsake of her I think when we look at the checkers ring it's very nice to believe that the woman in there alongside the portrait of Elizabeth is Ann but we don't know if this was and Cup that came to his birth and then she did part it all in this way perhaps that might give us an inclination or an idea or power Lizbeth felt about her mother and perhaps it's not necessary the romanticized version that we might like Hillary has always been fascinated by how often the answer to strife issues and perceived wrongdoings was beheading why not just love him up in the tower or somewhere else why was there so much beheading for so little of a crime well within the case of Lady Jane Grey and Guilford Dudley I think Mary the first plan was to keep them imprisoned but then more rebellion bubbled up and it bubbled up with Lady Jane Grey as a figurehead it's often been said that one of the reasons that Mary executes her cousin is because she wants to get married she wants to marry Phillip and he isn't prepared to come to a country where her reign is in jeopardy Mary is under threat in some ways because of Lady Jane Grey she has tried to sit on the throne and there are people that would try to raise her up she's she's too dangerous to remain alive and exiling her to a foreign nation where she could potentially an army behind her it's just never going to happen of course beheading is a privilege which might sell for a peculiar but you have to be nobility to be beheaded so one of the reasons why we see so many headings during the period we're talking about is because there's such a lot of flux and Henry arguably following on from his father Henry the seventh is Clearing House there's a lot of people with blood claims to the throne of England and that's a problem Cassie asked do you believe Elizabeth the first came birth I don't know this is a fantastic question if you had to teach my girls about any particular woman in history who would you choose online just one and I've already mentioned her in this video I think lady Mae what he wants of you this is a woman who is well-traveled this is a woman who is a scientific innovator and a woman who lives by her own terms I think she's not gonna be perfect because nobody is but she's definitely a figure that young women should see as being aspirational I think we all saw the question around astrology do you have any knowledge of why in the middie abominations timeframe Australia was heavily used in conjunction to Christianity I also seem to take scripture so seriously and yet that would quite deeply within such activities yes absolutely and it doesn't necessarily make that much sense except for people like one of the most famous is dr. John Dee who is definitely mixing what we know now was classic science with things that are superstition or occult on to us and things that don't seem compatible with faith but science is blurred in those terms and also he is treading a very very fine line his casting of horoscopes is quite dangerous there is accusations that people are casting horoscopes to see when varies more that's going to dies that somebody else might take over and that not only is a potentially heresy it is also treason to imagine the death of the king or the queen is almost as bad as actually planning it I think the logic being that if you think about the possibility of the monic dying maybe you'll be inspired to hasten it along so yes it's incredibly dangerous even then but there seemed to be some wiggle room if it's deemed to be valuable to the person in power we also have a couple of questions about reading portraits Elizabeth wondered if you would comment or read the portraits of young Elizabeth by William scrubs and the aging Elizabeth painting of 1610 yes I think absolutely reading them in conjunction with each other they're all about in both cases it's about the presentation of somebody according to somebody else's way of same thing so the young Elizabeth broadly believed to be commissioned by Katherine Parr so this is about presenting her stepdaughter maybe to her father whereas the aging Elizabeth is again a political comment Jacqui recently saw on video analyzing the portrait unknown woman in Persian dress by Marcus Garrett in a video they claimed they'd actually a portray Elizabeth first pregnant is there any possibility to this but there's a possible if he said to anything and everything within reason I don't believe that Elizabeth has a secret child because I think she's too closely scrutinized and watched I just I don't see how that happens on to a combined topic which I know has been very important to both of us how were veterans from wars treated when these wars finished in the past did they receive money or lands before Napoleon's wars they were mostly professional what happens when once they came back injured it was work was PTSD recognized somehow even if in a different way than we do today always it considered just a weakness absolutely yes from the kind of very early warfare before it was the standard practice for months in this country for example to have standing armies the expectation would be that the Barons would be the ones who would show up with men so these were not career soldiers they may turn up with laborers and farmhands who've been expected to pick up some military skill and they are the medieval version of what we now know potentially as cannon fodder the prize fighters are the armored soldiers on horseback whether they're in mail or later in plate armor but a way to wealth titles and land was to go to war and to revel in the spoils of those or if you distinguished yourself beside your monarch in battle you may find yourself being given a title given land given place we think about the sin Crispin's Day speech from Shakespeare and Henry the fifth where he talks about how today or gent of their condition that's about taking somebody who doesn't have a land or a title and making them gentle essentially raving about the South Florida because the way they distinguish themselves in battle mental health in general and in quotes insanity has there's been a really long journey towards the frankly limited understanding that we had today with within a very very long way from the full comprehension of how the brain functions and particularly how the brain when injured or harmed functions and for a long time mental health issues may have been treated quite cruelly not always there's a sort of balance where some people try and starve out the demonic influence or punish the demon within the person whereas others did recognize the need for compassion and care and gentleness but in terms of a recognition of what we now know as PTSS that's been a very recent thing and it's treatments in in earlier decades and centuries even you know the 20th century has been woefully lacking and misunderstood we've had quite a lot questions about royalty and the Royals so corny asked and I've asked this question many times how do you keep track of those in to try and royal family trees every now and again you have to go back and look them up because they're yes there's a lot of cross-pollination and cross connection and yes it's it's very very confusing I think the one though that gets more confusing is at least it's not the Spanish Habsburgs because that is incredibly confusing Joan asked if you have an opinion on why MDA did not marry off his daughters I think principally because their position was and became so contested it would have been far easier if one or the other of them are surviving brother because no foreign ruler is going to risk a son on somebody who may or may not be deemed legitimate it's it's too too big of a risk I think also that flux that's going on in England's faith and they're who they're at peace with him who they're at war with is so confused that while Mary is young he's never married her off because she's such a suitable porn - off to France or Spain or whoever else and of course by the time Elizabeth is just about to turn 3 her mother is executed and she is named Anna determines so then he has two daughters who are arguably not princesses anymore they are the Lady Mary and Lady Elizabeth who's he think Milan - they're incredibly high profile but contests as well what would have happened if Charles 1/5 had demanded that Catherine may be married - he sent back to Spain of the annulment or why Charles 1/5 did not do it well I think the offer was made from from what I've heard certainly in the case of Mary that there was plans to spirit her away firstly I don't think Charles really had the power to demand that of Henry had he done so it would have been effectively acknowledging that Catherine was there for more Spanish than English and therefore acknowledge that he wasn't really married to her that she wasn't his true life that he should send her back to wench from when she came I think on top of that Catherine wouldn't have gone she thought of herself and believed herself to be queen of England until her dying day dragging the mats pain would have meant that any claim that Mary might have been able to have to the English throne would have had to be nullified and Henry wouldn't have allowed it because on the flip side if she goes back to Spain then an army can launch behind her with Charles's fleet she can come in depose her father become queen and take England back to Rome arguably Charles doesn't get involved because that would have been a political powder keg making that demand and then if you make the demand you have to act upon it that's war Idina would love to hear your thoughts why does the UK still have a monarchy I'm the quick answer to that is because when we try to be a republic it didn't work very well of course Oliver Cromwell is a successful protector but after his death his son is put in the role almost acting as a king would act succeeding from his father so a republic it isn't really in the way that we had to know it in a modern context he fools he's known as tumbledown dick and from that moment onwards we have our monarchy invited back the expectation is that we get to grow in constitutional monarchy where King and Parliament or Queen and government work in collaboration and therefore monarch answers to people and that is what we still have happening now that our monarchy is a figurehead to our system it is a constitutional monarchy and I would say that that is why it works because they reign they don't rule what are your thoughts on Megan and Harry well I've never met them so I don't know those people all I can talk to or speak about is the coverage that I've seen so I can't really think about them as an historian would look because we simply don't have a far enough remove what I will say is that to me at least it's very evident that the coverage and scrutiny that particularly the Sussex has been subjected to has been incredibly unfair and it's hard for me to see how it isn't at least in part racially motivated what past events most closely resembled a rather dramatic recent turns that we have seen occur within the present British monarchy how did they shape or change the monarchy itself well I think the turn of events that gets talked about in relation to things that happened in the royal family I mean particularly the choice of the juvenile Sussex to separate themselves from being full-time working Royals the thing that gets brought up the most is the marriage of Wallis Simpson and Edward the eighth and his abdication from the throne of England and that's patently unfair print Harry tjuku Sussex they would have to be a large scale tragedy for him to ever sit on the throne of England he isn't abdicating there have been many many Royals who have chosen to live private lives and yes he absolutely was a senior royal but there has been talk for a number of years about a desire to slim down the monarchy and I think that what we're seeing now is an evolution of necessity and there's always been scandal throughout history that has tried to attach itself to members of the royal family I think that what we're seeing is in some ways unprecedented but not unexpected Henry asked is there a place in history where succession webdrama and will have been to modern-day implications there have been times where Thrones have been taken from in quote rightful kings or Queens the loss of the prince in the tower the reign of which the third if the princes had grown to them if Edward v had grown to be an old man sitting on the throne of England arguably that would have changed the face of history we probably wouldn't have had the true dynasty for example so don't necessary know if we can call that succession going wrong but I think it is succession being diverted and of course that has massive implications for how history plays out who in history ask the best questions obviously you do correct but I am of course just saying that because you're about to go and cook my dinner but of course the real people that ask the best question history are all of you I can't tell you how surprised there was to see how many of you responded to that post I put in the community tab and I'm so grateful for your insightful questions I'm just sorry that I probably haven't been able to answer all of them because of time but it has shown me is that we need to make another one of these videos at some point if you agree if you've enjoyed this video then please let me know in the comment section or you can come and find me over on my social media as always I'll leave links to my Instagram and Twitter in the description box so you can follow me there and we can continue all of our amazing conversations if you enjoyed this video as well please let me know by hitting the thumbs up please also subscribe this channel and while you're there hit the notification bell next subscribe button so that YouTube tells you what I've next uploaded I hope you're gonna have a great day whatever you're doing and I look forward to speaking to you in my next video take care of yourselves for bye for now [Music] [Music]

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Views: 33,742

Rating: 4.9721627 out of 5

Keywords: Q&A, AMA, 20000+ subscribers, Celebration, Education, Literature, Culture, History, Early Modern, Renaissance

Id: iDgnN9arSx8

Length: 66min 11sec (3971 seconds)

Published: Fri May 22 2020