![MS CCC 201 f.1 Page of text with historiated initial depicting the dreamer, from 'Piers Plowman' by William Langland (vellum). Corpus Christi College, Oxford, UK. An image of a medieval manuscript with the title "Piers the Plowman" written across the top, and a historiated initial on the letter P on the left of the page featuring a man sleeping with his head on his hand wearing a red robe](/history/sites/default/files/styles/hero/public/img/course/HIST251_Woolf.jpg?itok=7SzSY7ns)
This course is a general survey of English (and insofar as they interacted with England, Scottish, Irish and Welsh, history), from the Anglo-Saxon invasions of the fifth and sixth centuries through the end of the Plantagenet dynasty a millennium later. The scope of the course is broad, and it will introduce the student to the main currents of social, legal economic, political and cultural history during the period. Topics to be covered include the consolidation of England under the Anglo-Saxons, the Viking incursions and Danish settlements, the Norman Conquest, Feudal Society, institutions of law, religion and government, the Black Death and Peasants鈥 Revolt, and the so-called 鈥淲ars of the Roses鈥. Instruction will be a combination of lecture and discussion of documents from the period.