Pam I
I was born and grew up in Scotland and have always been interested in history and languages.
Location Canada
Activity
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In the Burns course they discuss how the Scots were looked on as inferior, not just by the English but also the anglicised lowland Scots, for how they spoke and yet he fought to preserve the Scots language. Even with all his success he was never totally accepted into genteel Edinburgh society. It helps to understand him and his work when you look at the...
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I'm a Scot living in Canada and agree the Scottish celebration of culture is far bigger than anything I've ever seen in Scotland. When Billy Connolly used to perform there'd be a sea of highland dress and flags :)
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Robert Louis Stevenson liked to based the characters in his books on real people he'd met. Maybe this gave them more authenticity, showed the good and the bad rather than making them romantic figures.
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Pam I replied to Robert Hamilton
A course on Lowland Scotland and kinship would be extremely interesting.
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Agree we have to look at James' upbringing and experiences to see where his prejudices and fears came from.
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Glad it was uplifting!
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Pam I made a comment
Haunting to watch and listen to this famous song from over 500 years ago.
Pibroch Domhnall Dubh https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WP4otPWMI7U -
Pam I made a comment
Born and raised in Scotland and living in Canada. Fascinated with history and archaeology. Surname is Inglis with ancestral connection to several clans. Not much source material available here and particularly interested in the clans’ recruitment from non Gaelic speaking parts of Scotland.
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Pam I replied to Patricia Gray
Late joining but enjoyed the introduction and reading all the comments. Very interested in the course, especially learning more about clan recruitment and septs.
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Pam I made a comment
Fantastic course and learning experience. Haven't changed my perception of Burns because of a life long interest in his work and life.
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Pam I made a comment
Karen was fantastic, the poem really came alive. This source provides the full version of the poem and helpful translation
http://www.robertburns.org.uk/Assets/Poems_Songs/tamoshanter.htm -
Pam I made a comment
There are still a fair number of boys only Burns clubs in Scotland. As pointed out, Calgary has a boys only club too but fortunately there are plenty of other Burns clubs that never had gender restrictions.
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Pam I replied to Moira Hansen
A fun exercise. Somehow it looked a lot clearer to me in the video at the museum.
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Pam I made a comment
Grew up with Burns poetry in Scotland. Been living in Canada now for over 40 years and interested to look at his works from a different point of view.
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Pam I replied to Rachel Kerr
There was an interesting documentary on TV recently here in Canada called "Secrets of the Dead: King Arthur's Lost Kingdom" about 5th Century post-Roman Britain and the Dark Ages. It may be available to view in your area and helpful to your son.
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Pam I made a comment
Thank you to those who worked so hard and gave their extensive expertise to make this a fantastic and memorable course. Sorry that we are at the end but the learning goes on.
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Pam I replied to Helen Clark
When Roman rule ended the Briton soldiers who remained could have claimed a much larger share of credit for the construction of the Wall than was due. Without literacy the verbal retelling of this through time may have led to it becoming common or convenient political belief with noone left to dispute it.
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Pam I made a comment
I think all three are highly likely. The soldiers on the Antonine Wall were far from supply lines and mutually beneficial trade with the local Caledonians would account for some exchange of Roman objects. Also scouting and encampment throughout Scotland, as well as incursions, could also account for more distribution of objects. I recall also reading that...
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Pam I replied to Muriel Sprott
Hi Muriel and Peter. Some of those odd looking dates on the timeline are because there were sometimes separate appointments of emperors in different parts of the empire e.g. Gordian I and II were emperors of Africa. Also there were at times co-emperors e.g. Pupienus and Balbinus whose joint appointment was made by the Senate in opposition to the emperor...
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Pam I made a comment
The videos are very clearly presented, informative and easy to follow with the examples. Appreciate the historical background. The letters written by Oliver Cromwell (P), Elizabeth I and the one related to Charles II's health were fascinating and an added bonus.
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Pam I made a comment
Thank you for an interesting and fascinating week one.
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Pam I replied to Aimee-Leigh Warhurst
Thank you, Aimee-Leigh, I really enjoyed this article. Although we aren't sure if Anne Boleyn is the other lady in the ring, it was gratifying that Anne Boleyn's memory wasn't hidden away but honoured during Elizabeth's reign.
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Pam I replied to Robert McGregor
I think the document is full of inconsistencies for the reasons Julie says, there was no standard. If you look throughout there is inconsistent use of 'f' with a horizontal stroke and 'f' without, also 'v' instead of 'u' sometimes and other times it's a 'u' and an 's' instead of 'f' is sometimes used but not always.
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@JimMcNeil @JulieM Surprised that this wasn't taught in your schools in the UK. I thought history was part of the curriculum. It was taught in the schools I went to in Scotland. I live in Canada now and world history isn't taught in school.
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Pam I replied to Betty Cheesman
I read somewhere, Betty, that, as the King's mistress, she was able to afford to pay others to write her letters and she signed them.
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I hope you enjoy both courses, Atulya! Will see you soon.
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Hi Atulya, Thanks for asking, I'd recommend Hadrian's Wall very highly. I'd be interested to hear what you think if you take the course. I find it fascinating to learn about the different cultures and religions that existed along the Wall. The instructors are excellent and you can tell a lot of work, detail and passion has gone into this course. There are some...
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Pam I replied to John Hartley
More revelations.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tyne-19399441 -
Pam I made a comment
I live in Canada and was raised in Scotland and went to university in both countries. Have always been interested in history and interested in improving skills in reading documents.
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Thanks for the links. Surprised at its weight, over 14 pounds!
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Thank you for the invite, Atulya! I am in the middle of another course, "Hadrian's Wall: Life on the Roman Frontier", and might have to wait a bit but will put "Empire" on my wish list!
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Very interesting to have your perspective. Thank you, Atulya!
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Pam I replied to George Harvey
Well said!
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Pam I made a comment
Shakespeare's texts were often politically inspired. His fame grew with Elizabeth's patronage and he was brilliant and favoured and knew exactly where his success lay. In A Midsummer Night's Dream Oberon refers to "a fair vestal throned by the west” meaning Elizabeth's purity. Shakespeare also wrote about the lives and deaths of Elizabeth's predecessors. All...
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Pam I replied to Peter Rawcliffe
Very interesting site! Thanks Peter.
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Pam I replied to Alison Precious
I think the loneliness and strain of her long reign took its toll as she aged especially with the loss of her long term trusted contemporaries particularly Dudley, supposedly her greatest love. She is quoted to have said "I spent all of my life in little rooms". This was likely for safety or control measures against the continuous plots against her life and...
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It's possible the outcome could have been very different for her if she had been less pushy and hadn't underestimated Henry.
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Pam I replied to Maggie Ward
I agree, Maggie. This would only affect a portion of the population.
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Pam I made a comment
Mary, as a Catholic queen with a claim to the English throne, was a real threat to Elizabeth as she had support throughout Europe. If not for Elizabeth's spy networks through Cecil and Walsingham, the Babington plot might have succeeded. Ironic that Mary's son succeeded Elizabeth due to Robert Cecil's political dealings behind Elizabeth's back.
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Agree, Evelyn. She couldn't have ruled as effectively without his skills.
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Pam I made a comment
With the lack of male heirs, Elizabeth would have been schooled for the possibility of becoming queen. She learnt firsthand the fate of queens and being declared illegitimate and cast aside taught her very early on about vulnerability in a man's world. She was able to survive Mary's reign as both a Protestant and heir to the throne, also imprisonment in the...
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Pam I made a comment
Just wanted to share this with fellow learners out of interest. Anyone happen to have a few million to spare?
https://www.christies.com/about-us/press-archive/details?PressReleaseID=9562&lid=1 -
Pam I replied to Joanna Fox
Though he didn't recognize the Pope's authority for his own purposes, Henry was conservative in his views and didn't change Catholic doctrine or ceremonies. People were still practising Catholics during his reign. It wasn't till Edward's reign that the law was changed to make the church officially Protestant and religious images and relics were disallowed,...
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Pam I made a comment
It was a coup as Mary acted swiftly to seize power and with military backing. Violence was involved to achieve her goal by the violent deaths of Queen, Jane's husband and two brothers, Cranmer the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Duke of Northumberland.
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Pam I replied to Holly Probert
Movies are about making good stories and not meant to be documentaries. The stories are created so that people can relate to them in their own era, such as Thatcherism in the 80s. I think most people are aware they cannot be factual accounts. The movie Braveheart did annoy me though in every way, completely inaccurate right from the start with the highland...
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Pam I made a comment
Agree with Victoria, fascinating presentation and high calibre instructors. Far more scope and variety of subject matter than I would have believed possible in only 3 weeks. Hard to narrow it down but the tombstone readings, archaeological methods and forensics were particularly interesting. The diversity and number of non-Romans who lived on the Wall was also...
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Pam I made a comment
The Romans had strict rules for burial and record keeping of deaths. Burial was forbidden within the fort walls so this hasty, shallow burial looks like an attempt to avoid discovery. We don't know if the child was male or female or how he/she died. With the position of the arms close to the upper body, could the hands possibly have been tied? Could the child...
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@BryanWallace Just to mention, was able to access the book online and wanted to share as it's an absolutely fascinating read. My relatives lived close by the site on Roman Road. We had no clue what lay, or may still lie, beneath.
http://books.socantscot.org/digital-books/catalog/book/5 -
Pam I made a comment
This course is fascinating and can't wait for this week's instalment. Thank you.
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Pam I replied to GILLIAN McIver
That is very moving. Thanks, Anthony.
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Pam I made a comment
Thanks, this is absolutely fascinating! Knowledge is always evolving.
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Pam I made a comment
Read once that the Roman soldiers kept the heads of their conquests as trophies. He could have been a young tribal warrior killed in combat. Maybe his head was displayed on the fort and eventually fell in the ditch with the other bones.
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Thanks, Barb. That was useful.
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Pam I made a comment
This was a fascinating insight. So interesting how much work and detail in the tombstones.
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For those who don't live in the UK unfortunately online is the only way to go. If I ordered from Waterstones the shipping charges alone are double the cost of buying it on Amazon.
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Thanks for the site, so interesting
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Pam I replied to Anne Noble
Enjoyed everyone's comments. I was especially interested too in the the strategy for sending the non-citizen auxiliaries into battle. It's hard to rely on Tacitus's account that no Roman blood was spilt which, if true, was likely due to his exaggerated account of the battle and of Roman achievements. The Batavian and Tungrian auxiliaries were an elite fighting...
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I found this interesting and the extent of industrial mining in Roman Britain.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mining_in_Roman_Britain -
Pam I made a comment
There was so much going on politically, religiously and internationally at that time, things were completely unravelling for Somerset. Perhaps historians have focussed more on the bigger upheavals and discounted the effects of these seemingly remote class wars and they weren't always viewed as significant.
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Pam I made a comment
Calvinists like John Knox, Edward's royal chaplain, preached fire and brimstone and fear. They believed our salvation was written in the Bible. The Second Commandment justified their iconophobia and destruction of Catholic imagery.
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She had a hand in Wolsey's demise too and was no ally of Cromwell. Even if she'd had a male heir I wonder if she'd have survived.
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Pam I replied to David Vaughan
@DavidVaughan Agree with you. I wonder too if he knew what was going on in court. He seems to have leaned heavily on his councillors who tried to steer him with their own ambitions. Was reading about Katherine Howard's downfall and how Cranmer took up the case against her as a chance to take down his own rivals, the house of Norfolk.
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@MelanieM It's interesting that life expectancy at that time was around age 35 and 9 out of 10 people died before age 40. Katherine of Aragon didn't survive Henry because at age 50 she was old and died of cancer. Henry was 45 then. My point was that Katherine of Aragon, and Katherine Parr, were skilled in dealing with Henry and both managed to survive without...
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Pam I replied to Ann Murrells
@AnnMurrells There are different theories about what happened to her daughter.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Seymour -
Pam I made a comment
It's impossible to say conclusively if her death was inevitable. So many things made life very precarious for her - Katherine's popularity always overshadowed Anne's, Henry's accident and radical personality changes, scheming by Henry's advisors, the lack of a male heir, her passionate and outspoken nature. I wonder if Anne had some of Katherine's...
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@paolafloramo So glad you enjoyed it! I thought it interesting as Anne doesn't hold back and shows a lot about her character.
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Pam I made a comment
It is powerful propaganda showing the Tudor dynasty as supreme with Henry as its virile, indisputable leader.
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Pam I made a comment
Saying the annulment was for the realm and keeping any mention of Anne out of it was a political manoeuver. The divorce was taking a long time and Henry would be getting desperate. Interesting letter from Anne to Wolsey showing she wasn't just waiting in the wings.
https://englishhistory.net/tudor/letter-anne-boleyn-cardinal-thomas-wolsey-1529/ -
Pam I made a comment
Henry literally tried to move heaven and earth for Anne Boleyn which he didn't do for any of his other wives so there were very powerful forces at work.
I read that Henry ordered all paintings of her destroyed after she was executed. -
Pam I made a comment
Thanks for a great week 1. Looking forward to this week!
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Pam I made a comment
Tudor aristocrats competed in building large homes to attract monarchs to visit and stay with them and receive their patronage. Stafford may have been paranoid about his own safety in building a fortress rather than a palace as well as travelling with soldiers. But he certainly wasn't very astute not to recognize that Henry didn't like to see anyone, including...
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Pam I made a comment
Appearances meant everything in Tudor times and lavish shows like this were a political design to put England firmly on the international stage as a serious major power.
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Pam I replied to GILLIAN McIver
Viewing Katherine from a modern context, history was very unkind in defining her by being unable to produce a male heir. She wasn't just an accessory to Henry, she was very accomplished and popular in her own right. She was appointed regent when Henry was in France and ordered an army raised to fight the Scots at Flodden. She rode north in full armour to...
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Pam I made a comment
I watched it and found it entertaining but much preferred Keith Michell's portrayal in The Six Wives of Henry VIII, as well as Wolf Hall, for historical detail and performance.
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Pam I made a comment
Henry was a good and popular king for over two decades. Radical changes in his personality began around the time of a very serious jousting accident that caused unconsciousness. It was common in those days to use lead based ointments to treat conditions like his leg ulcers and lead absorption causes brain damage.
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@JessicaD Agree it doesn't but the skeleton and facial reconstruction tell us he did not look like the monster history has described.
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Pam I replied to Peter Johnson
@PeterJohnson Thank you for this. I looked into it and most interesting indeed. Richard had trained to fight from an early age and would not have been in the thick of battle if he was in any way impeded.
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Pam I made a comment
Henry was so ill-prepared to rule and unfamiliar with English politics and had to be fulfilling the political ambitions of others. We'll likely never know for sure but it does seem like a highly orchestrated propaganda campaign to obliterate the rule and record of the Plantagenets. Why treat the body so badly when it was acknowledged by his enemies how bravely...
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Pam I made a comment
I was familiar with Henry's background. The historical records show what fortune and ambition can achieve.
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Pam I made a comment
Thank you for a wonderful course and the sharing of knowledge by all those who created this course as well as participants. I haven't changed my view on Shakespeare but have a much greater appreciation of those who are dedicated to studying and revering his works as well as those who present them and the decisions they have to make.
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Thank you, this article was very helpful and interesting, a far cry from the way Shakespeare was taught in school as just the words.
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Very interesting article, thank you.
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@FM @VivienneC Agree, absolutely fascinating. Thank you! See playhouse description on pages 166 and 167 but various other references to Shakespeare.
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Pam I made a comment
Fascinating to have the actors' perspective. Such a lot of responsibility was put on the early modern actors to make the scenes come alive.
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Pam I made a comment
Thank you for a great week. The course is so interesting and well presented.
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Pam I replied to Jean Bernath
@JeanBernath As an expat too I feel the same way!
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Pam I made a comment
I also really enjoyed the video of the three experts discussing why the wall was built. Shows how much room there is for different viewpoints.
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Pam I made a comment
Was thinking back to the suffering overseas man in 1.14 and wondering about his status if he was able to make an appeal. Could any soldier do this? Would he have been treated like this if he was a citizen? Brutality likely was frequently dispensed and overlooked on the frontier regardless of status.
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Pam I made a comment
I think the construction of the wall was initially to create a demarcation line between the conquered south and the unconquered north but later became part of a much larger network of frontier control of the movement of people and goods as well as policing of the unconquered areas. The building of the Antonine Wall points to Hadrian's Wall being not purely a...
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Interesting that the gateway access at Milecastle 37 was for foot traffic. This implies it wasn't a regular crossing for trading, likely due to topography. Would the foot traffic be soldiers, maybe doing maintenance on the wall and ditches?
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Pam I replied to Konstantinos Niafas
It was mentioned that the Romans moved north to establish the new frontier at the Antonine Wall only 8 years after finishing Hadrian's Wall. To be able to do that, the local Briton tribes must have been integrated/subjugated by that time.
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Hi Bryan, Thanks a lot for the source, I must check that out. This wonderful course makes me long for a trip back when possible!
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Like an artist signing their work.
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These two brothers appear to be very successful civilian entrepreneurs with a military past that provides them with lots of inside connections. I am wondering if military life naturally segued into business life or if soldiers were able to blend the two on the frontier. The text refers to ongoing communication and transportation issues and seems like a full...
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Frontier life had to be particularly brutal and punishment would be dispensed without need of any approval. I read from another source that the Britons were the lowest on the food chain as evidenced by derogatory terms used by the Romans in documents to refer to them. This man is a foreign trader with a higher social status and mentions this to help seek...
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Staggering to think of 9 stacked layers of Roman forts all perfectly preserved. Eager to learn more.
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It's believed by some that Agricola and his army may have reached the area around Inverness.
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Pam I replied to Michael Beith
The Romans weren't able to conquer all of Britain. Building a wall on this scale indicates just how much of a match some of the tribes were with their guerrila methods.
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Pam I made a comment
The building of the wall would be the equivalent of an alien invasion for the local people and a constant reminder of absolute Roman power. Trade and access were controlled totally by the Romans with limited crossings along the wall. The locals had no choice but to become part of the huge economy created by the wall with hardship for many with compulsory...
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Pam I made a comment
The Roman emperors were masters of rule by fear and propaganda, always thinking about their legacies. The statue on the right would be how Hadrian wanted to be remembered, for his power. The statue on the left was constructed in a different historical era and context.