The eldest sons of Henry I, Edward III, Henry VII and James I all died before their fathers. What if William (drowned in the White Ship) had succeeded and there had been no civil war between Stephen and Matilda? What if Edward the Black Prince had survived and there had been no disastrous reign of Richard II? What if Prince Arthur had succeeded and there had been no Henry VIII – and perhaps no break with Rome? What if the brilliant Henry Frederick had followed James I and there had been no Charles I and English Civil War and Commonwealth?
- John Appleby: The Troubled Reign of King Stephen (Bell & Sons, 1969) ISBN 7135 1564 3
- Richard Barber: Edward, Prince of Wales and Aquitaine (Allen Lane, 1978) ISBN 0 71339 0861 0
- Carolly Erickson: Great Harry (Dent & Sons, 1980) ISBN 0-460-04366-8
- Roy Strong: Henry Prince of Wales and England’s Lost Renaissance (Pimlico, 2000) ISBN 0-7126-6509-9
- A fun session of speculation – what might have been?
- The reign of Richard II leading to the coup of Henry IV, the reign of Henry VIII and the break with Rome and the great English Civil War might never have happened had the original heir to the throne not died before his father. Would this have really made our history any different? Almost certainly.
By the end of this course, students should be able to:
- Realise just how much history can turn on such things as an unexpected death.
- Try to assess if great historical events are driven primarily by personalities or do they have their own compelling logic.
