Personal Area of Interest II - French History

French History

Like British history I developed an interest in the French variety from a young age. A great deal of my early passionwas motivated by the reality that much of French history is entangled with her rival across the Channel. This is especially true of the Middle Ages with both the early Norman and Plantagenet dynasties overlapping with Gallic ambitions on the continent.

Areas of Primary focus: The French Revolution, Napoleon, the post Bonaparte Era, the French Empire and the Third Republic

Areas of Secondary Focus:  Charlemagne and the Carolingians and the Reign of Louis XIV.

What I feel I need to know more about: The Valois Kings, France between the World Wars

These are the Eleven Period that I divide French history into:

1.       The Gaulish struggles versus Rome

2.       The Frank Invasion and the Merovingians

3.       Charlemagne and the Carolingians

4.       The Capetian dynasty and the Crusades

5.        The Hundred Years War and the Rise of the House of Valois

6.       Religious struggles in France

7.       The Rise of the House of Bourbon – Louis XIV

8.       The French Revolution and the Bonaparte Era

9.       Turbulence in the 19^th century. The Second Empire and the Third Republic.

10.   France and the World Wars.

11.   The Decline of France and the challenges of the 5^th Republic in the post-Colonial era

Personal Area of Interest I - British History

British History

I have been an avid reader of British history since I was a child. Look and Learn, the Hamlyn/Collins publications and my father’s enthusiasm for the subject were driving factors. Even to this day I have ingrained in my mind the exact order of the English/British monarch from Edward the Confessor onwards (as well as the PMs since Disraeli).

Areas of Primary focus: The British Empire (especially in Africa), the Monarchial succession, the Anglo-Scottish Wars, Tudors and Stewarts and the English Civil War.

Areas of Secondary Focus: The Norman Conquest, Hundred Years War, Royal Navy, Winston Churchill and the Crimean War.

What I feel I need to know more about: The details of the Irish fight for Independence, War of the Roses and the David Lloyd George Prime Ministership.

These are the Ten Period that I divide British/English history into:

1.       The Celtic Era and Roman Britain

2.       Saxon Domination

3.       The Norman Conquest and the French Kings. Feudalism.

4.       The Rise of the Tudors and the Decline of Catholicism.

5.       Unification, the Stuarts and the English Civil War

6.       Restoration and the Emergence of the House of Hanover.

7.       The Early Empire and Parliament in the Age of the Enlightenment

8.       Period of Splendid Isolation

9.       Internationalism and WWI

10.   WWII and the Decline of Modern Britain