My Personal Curriculum 2026
As some of you may know, I hope to begin attending University again in September, studying MIlitary History at Lincoln BIshops University. As such to get myself ready and flexing my academic brain again, I have devised a personal curriculum. I will share this below. It is not about giving me a wide overview of history, it's about diving into the areas that interest ME and to get me ready to study history at undergraduate level again.
Topic One
England 1066-1485 is my first topic. THis will come as little surprise to people who know me. It is an area that has long fascinated me and is the era of my favourite historical figure, William Marshal. This time period covers from the Norman Conquest to the death of Richard III and the birth of the Tudor dynasty.
Key topics will include:
The Norman Conquest & feudal military structure
The Angevin Empire & warfare
The Barons’ Wars & Magna Carta
The Hundred Years’ War (English perspective)
The Wars of the Roses
Key questions will include:
How did conquest become kingship?
How did military power, law, and Church authority intertwine?
Why did England become unusually centralised?
Topic Two
My second topic is the Dissolution of the Monasteries and the Church of England’s split with Rome, placed in a longer context. This will mainly cover from 1300 to 1540 and scratches that itch for religious history I have.
Key topics will include:
Late medieval Church & criticism
Henry VIII and power politics
Thomas Cromwell as a political operator
Impact on local communities & military finances
Key questions will include:
Was the Reformation inevitable or opportunistic?
How powerful was the medieval Church in England?
Was the Dissolution ideological, financial, or political?
Topic Three
The third topic combines my interest in religious history with my interest in military history, and will be the first time i leave England as I look to to go more in depth in my knowledge of the Three Major Crusades. I know there were more than three Crusades, but its the frist three I will focus on. I will be looking at how Papal authority and legitimacy worked in Medieval Europe as well as the logistics and leadership of the three major crusades.
Key Questions will include:
Were the Crusades acts of faith, violence, or geopolitics?
How medieval warfare adapts across cultures
How myth vs reality shapes memory
Topic Four
I return back to Europe, but not England, for the fourth topic and look to tackle the city states of Italy during the Italian Renaissance. I love this period of history having been introduced to it by Assassin’s Creed II. It quickly became one of my favourite games, and one of my favourite areas of history. Reading will include the likes of Machiavelli from the time, as well as more modern sources from historians.
Key Questions will include:
How does fragmented power shape warfare?
Condottieri vs citizen armies
Politics as performance
Topic Five
I leap several hundred years into the future as I look at the first ‘industrial’ wars, the First and Second World Wars. I will mainly focus on the Western Front of both wars, with a quick look at the Italian Campaign in the Second World War. The First World War will cover the entire period of the Western Front, from 1914 to 1918. The Western Front in the Second World War will focus mainly on that front post D-Day, though there will be some look at Commando missions into France.
Key Questions will include:
How technology reshapes command and control
Attrition vs manoeuvre
Civil-military relations
Topic Six
This will take a look at the RAF after the Second World War, including its role in the Cold War, policing the skies over the Balkans for NATO, their role in the Counterinsurgency Campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan and their role moving forward such as using drones and cyber integration.
Key Questions will include:
What role does air power play after total war?
How does doctrine change when existential war disappears?
How do budget, politics, and alliances shape capability?
Final Topic, Topic Seven
My final topic will be theme based as opposed to time based. It will be intelligence operatives and ‘elite forces’ from 1066 to the modern day. This will include everything from Knights to the SAS in Counter Terror Operations. Elizabeth I spies to modern MI5 and MI6 operations. This is perhaps what I find most interesting, but I find it so interesting I struggle to narrow it down to a time period! So I won’t bother. This one is last as its my reward for six or seven solid months of study in preparation for my degree.
Key Questions will include:
How old is “modern” intelligence?
When does secrecy strengthen the state — and when does it undermine it?
Are special forces strategically decisive or politically convenient?
So that’s a look at my personal curriculum for the first six to seven months of 2026. I will of course also be working on my two businesses and applying for student finance so this promises to be a busy period for me! I hope you all have a happy and prosperous new year!