Visits & Study Days Visit to Knebworth House, September 5th VISIT TO  KNEBWORTH  HOUSE, HERTS, THURSDAY, 5th SEPTEMBER  We are offering our members the chance to join a day Visit on Thursday 5th September. to the wonderful Knebworth House, Hertfordshire and its stunning gardens. Knebworth House is the Hertfordshire home of the of Lytton family which has featured in music, literature and politics in the past 500 years. Located off the A1 south of Stevenage, it has a 25 acre formal garden and extensive parkland. All visitor facilities will be available to us on a day which is closed to the general public. Admission includes a guided tour of the house, three exhibitions, the garden and the dinosaur trail. The Garden Terrace Tea Room will be open on arrival and for the ordering and prepayment of a simple lunch from a Closed Day menu. There is also an outdoor picnic area. See their website for more information 22nd October 2024 Tobias Capwell THE WAR OF THE ROSES 1455-1487: Understanding the Dynastic Conflicts of Late Mediæval England This Study Day has a simple purpose - to make the Wars of the Roses easy to understand. This is no small challenge. The events, actions, battles and reversals of fortune making up this series of civil conflicts in late mediæval England are complicated, to say the least. The key to it all is to find a way to clearly identify and understand the positions of the individual human beings involved, in what was a deeply personal and bitter dynastic feud. Achieving a meaningful sense of the key players is difficult however, since names and titles often repeat through several generations of the noble families involved. Also, very few portraits exist - in many cases we have no physical description of the 'Rose Warriors' at all. Expressing the progression of events and the interpersonal relationships visually, in lively and creative ways, the lecturer draws on his academic and practical experiences, as both a scholar of the late Middle Ages and as one of the world's foremost mediæval martial artists, to bring this oft- misunderstood but remarkable period of British history to life. The lecturer also offers the chance to handle replica fifteenth-century arms and armour from his own collection.