Event Details

You believe your government is failing in its duty, whether it has overstepped the bounds of lawful rule or is just incompetent: the well-being and liberty of your country and its people are under threat. What action can you take?

What legal rights do you have to resist, restrict or overthrow those in power? If legal measures do not work, should you take the law into your own hands – can you justify violent action?

In this taster talk, you will explore with Dr Sophie Ambler of the Department of History how people in the Middle Ages tackled these challenges – from the right to depose tyrants and remove useless rulers, to rebellion and revolution, and the war for the throne that ravaged thirteenth-century England.

Keen to know more in advance of the session? Hear Sophie discuss Simon de Montfort, leader of England’s first revolution, in this BBC History Extra podcast. With Dr Sophie Ambler, Lecturer in Later Medieval History in the Department of History.