Key facts

Details for course being taught in current academic year
Level 2  -  18 credits  -  spring and summer terms

E-learning links

Study Direct: V1368 (09/10)

Resources

Timetable Link

Course description

Course outline

The coronation of Queen Victoria in 1838 brought to the throne the first woman in over one hundred years. Almost at once, initial popular interest in her desirable qualities, her youth, her femininity, her purity, began to sour as she was revealed to be a staunch partizan of the unpopular Whig government, and then chose for her Consort a German, the soon-to-be Prince Albert.

This course will examine two major themes. First, it will use the early years of Victoria’s reign to explore the painful birth of ‘Victorian’ England - caught on the cusp between the patrician assumptions of the eighteenth century and the more middle class principles that animated the nineteenth. Second, it will tie together these threads by returning to the Coronation of 1838 and examining its place in the long development of royal ritual, to assess how far the ‘invented traditions’ of British monarchy have contributed to the stability of the nation.

Among topics to be considered will be the rise of the middle class, the role of women in early Victorian England, the conflicts of religion, the politics of reform and the struggle for the constitution, the rise of respectable society, the impact of technology, and the rise of the popular press.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course, a successful student should be able to:
1) understand a historical moment by reference to the particular context in which it occurred;
2) communicate the importance of locality in history, and the specificity of particular historical events;
3) supply evidence of these skills in essays that distil information provided in course lectures and for class discussion;
4) undertake a sustained argument largely based on secondary sources but also using a limited amount of primary material.

Assessments

Resit mode of assessment

Timing

Submission deadlines may vary for different types of assignment/groups of students.

Weighting

Coursework components (if listed) total 100% of the overall coursework weighting value.

Teaching methods

How to read the week pattern

The numbers indicate the weeks of the term and how many events take place each week.

Contact details

Dr Lucy Robinson

Assess convenor
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/history/profile22808.html

Prof Matthew Cragoe

Assess convenor, Convenor
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/history/profile184587.html