Early Modern and Eighteenth Century Centre Blog

On 8 April 2025, Naomi Pullin (University of Warwick) and Charmian Mansell (University of Sheffield) organised a one-day workshop: ‘Emotions and Labour in the Early Modern World’, which set out to explore new methodologies and approaches to studying emotions in histories of early modern work. Generously supported by the Humanities Research Centre Conference Fund and Humanities Research Centre Visiting Speaker Fund, the Early Modern and Eighteenth-Century Centre and the Institute of Advanced Studies, the event was fully international, with keynote presentations and a series of events involving two leading scholars in this field: Professor Katie Barclay (University of Macquarie, Sydney) and Professor Sasha Turner (Johns Hopkins, Baltimore), along with many other emerging and established scholars of early modernity.

‘Midlands History & Heritage – Collaborative Approaches’ took place on Friday afternoon, 17 January 2025. The event was designed to facilitate greater cooperation between the University of Warwick and the Lord Leycester Hospital, the partner organisation for my Collaborative Doctoral Award. The event built upon the highly successful workshop series Dr Naomi Pullin organised last year (which is being repeated this year) at the Lord Leycester Hospital. These workshops brought together University of Warwick academics and PhD students with local volunteers and researchers. Another ambition of the Midlands History & Heritage event was to foster conversation and develop relationships between leading Midlands scholars and key heritage, history, and museum stakeholders, allowing historians and public-facing institutions to interact and learn from one other.

Almost every dynasty to hold the English (later, British) throne has experienced considerable family disunity. This has ranged from personal disagreements - such as the well-documented disputes between successive Hanoverian kings and their sons throughout the 18^th century – to open warfare. The ‘Anarchy’ of 1138-53 saw Empress Matilda fight her cousin Stephen of Blois for the English crown; the ‘Wars of the Roses’ tore the Plantagenet dynasty apart; and Mary II and Anne acquiesced in the overthrow of their father James II in the ‘Glorious Revolution’ of 1688-9. However, there is one instance of such a schism which is not only largely forgotten, but is also perhaps the most surprising.

I thought I was done with early modern European history. Not for good, but perhaps for two or three weeks. I was separated from Europe by ten thousand miles and two weeks in a quarantine hotel. I had just finished marking the last batch of Europe in the Making essays for the year. It was June, but the weather was getting colder, not hotter. The pōhutukawa trees in Wellington, the capital city of Aotearoa New Zealand, had lost their red flowers several months previously.

But then I saw this:

Do Charles II (1630-1685) and Charles III (1948-present) have anything in common? Over three hundred years apart, there are, of course, many differences; but are there any parallels between the two monarchs and the two ‘Carolingian’ periods?

Both Charles II and Charles III came to the throne after a long wait. Charles II, whose father Charles I lost the civil wars and was beheaded in 1649, endured a long period of exile, in which he toured the courts of Europe looking for both refuge and support in his bid to regain his kingdom. Although the monarchy was restored in 1660 and Charles came to the throne, the somewhat traumatic experience of his ‘travels’ lived with him for the rest of his life. During his exile, Charles had to swallow distasteful policies foisted on him by his temporary allies, leading to a life-long tendency to disguise his true self. Charles III has waited longer, of course, and though his apprenticeship was less traumatic it may well have as enduring an impact on how he behaves as monarch and he may have to emulate his name-sake by hiding his opinions and his true self. Charles II was a ‘monarch in masquerade’; Charles III may well have to be one too.