William Sterling

An introduction to the history section

The Royal Cup of France and England. This was one of the few surviving masterpieces associated with the greatest of all Mediaeval art patrons, Jean duc de Berry. He commissioned it in 1380 as a gift for his brother, King Charles V of France. The lid and main body of the cup show scenes from the Life of St Agnes on whose feast day Charles was born. The cup is solid gold decorated with enamel, probably the best surviving example of Mediaeval Champlevé enameling. St Agnes was an early Christian martyr who refused to marry a pagan and was burned at the stake for her refusal to worship the Roman Emperor. The flames did not hurt her and she was killed by a spear being driven through her throat. The base shows the four evangelist symbols – St John’s eagle in the picture. Image © Trustees of the British Museum
My main area of academic study has been History. My first degree at Keele University (1976-1980) was a Joint Honours in History and Geography. The areas I specialised in for History were The Greeks, The Enlightenment, Tenth Century England, Thirteenth Century France, Renaissance England and The Hundred Years War. Read more »

SPOTLIGHT: History

Queen Anne

The Life and Times of Queen Anne This was a one day course at the City Lit on Saturday 21st February 2015.  It was described thus Queen Anne was the last of the Stuarts and suffered much personal tragedy but she ruled over an increasingly prosperous nation that had unprecedented military success in Europe under… Read more »

Music and Art Inspired by Shakespeare 1

This is the first of six postings for lectures from the Cruise on the SAGA Pearl II to the Gulf of Bothnia. MUSIC AND ART INSPIRED BY SHAKESPEARE This series of Six Talks was devised to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death in 2016. They were commissioned for a cruise to the Gulf of… Read more »

Baltic Cruise Lecture 5

Lectures for Baltic and St Petersburg Cruise on the Ocean Countess July 2011 ANGLO-SAXONS AND VIKINGS – THE MAKING OF ENGLAND Lecture 5 Vikings 1 England 0 Summary of Lecture 4 In the last lecture we examined how the West Saxon kings took advantage of the power vacuum left by the weak kings of Mercia… Read more »

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