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"In this essay, I shall be examining what I feel are the main issues surrounding the problem of why historians do not agree whether Henry V was a good king. The main reasons all stem from individual choices of the historian, and include their choice of frameworks, of sources, how these sources are interpreted and finally the historian's own motives for writing. Through this, I hope to conclusively show how a historian's opinion on a historical figure is often a subjective opinion, just as if they were judging how successful a person alive today had become."

The following are early church fathers and apologists of the first and second centuries. The first eight or nine documents are also known as the Apostolic Fathers. The writers known as the church fathers represent the ancient orthodox church as opposed to other elements of ancient Christianity such as Gnosticism. These are the church fathers and apologists that can be read on the Early Christian Writings web site.

Our story begins in 1360. It was a time of castles and intrigue, of knights and chivalry. Less than twenty years before, the Black Death had decimated Europe's population. Twenty years later, Wat Tyler would meet his fate while leading a peasant uprising. In the meantime, Geoffrey Chaucer the great English poet, was writing his famous Canterbury Tales. The Knights of France and England had tales to tell of their own. Of jousting and tournaments. Of fair maidens and dragons. Of King Arthur and the Round Table. English speakers then did not sound like English speakers today. But people who attended the popular jousting tournaments of the 14th century expected from their heroes what we expect from ours: Courage in the face of great danger.

"In his anger at the English barons, William commanded that all crops and herds, chattels and foods should be burned to ashes, so that the whole of the North be stripped of all means of survival. So terrible a famine fell upon the people, that more than 100,000 young and old starved to death. My writings have often praised William, but for this act I can only condemn him." Orderic Vitalis

"So unpopular was John that his barons finally rose up in rebellion against his arbitrary rule, and against the severe punishments often inflicted upon them, until they eventually forced the king to grant them the Charter of Liberties, also known as Magna Carta, at Runnymede on 15 June 1215. Few can have lamented King John's eventual demise at Newark Castle - most probably following an attack of dysentery -in October 1216. Writing some forty years later, Matthew Paris (d. 1259), monk and historian of St Albans Abbey, delivered the ultimate condemnation: 'Foul as it is, Hell itself is made fouler by the presence of John'."

Whenever you frame a question with reference to how things have changed over time, you commit yourself to doing historical research. All of us do this all the time, but not everyone thinks very carefully about the best ways of finding information about the past and how it relates to the present.

links to wax tablets images, resources, etc. on the web, including medieval