Early Modern History
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Tweeting from the Grave: Sickness and Survival in the 17th Century
by Dr Hannah Newton [i] My favourite thing about being a historian is reading other people’s diaries. I began to realise this at the tender age of eight, when our teacher asked us to write a series of diary entries… Continue reading
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20th December 1699: A new ‘New Year’
by Dr Andy Willimott Peter the Great’s reign was marked by an overriding desire to enforce reform on Russia, dragging it kicking and screaming in to line with many European practices. On 20 December 1699 (according to the Julian Calendar),… Continue reading
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16th December 1631: Vesuvius erupts again
by Prof Paul Davies Everyone knows the story of Mount Vesuvius and its destruction of Pompeii (79 CE), which remained hidden from the world until its rediscovery in the eighteenth century. Far less familiar is the volcano’s later eruption of… Continue reading
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Amsterdam Conference
by Dr Richard Blakemore At the end of June, I attended a conference in Amsterdam to mark the 350th anniversary of the Dutch navy’s raid on Chatham dockyard in 1667. The raid is most famous for the Dutch capture of… Continue reading
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Christmas 2016: Sugar and Spice and All Things…
by Dr Richard Blakemore [1] Samuel Pepys, the famous diarist of the mid-seventeenth century, enjoyed Christmas (as we learned in the third post of our Christmas 2016 series). In 1661 he recorded spending a merry evening with friends; five years… Continue reading



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