The James Ford Lectures 2025: French in Medieval Britain: Cultural Politics and Social History, c.1100-c.1500

The Ford Lectures in British History were founded by a bequest from James Ford, and inaugurated by S.R.Gardiner in 1896-7. Since then, an annual series has been delivered over six weeks in Hilary term. They have long been established as the most prestigious series in Oxford and an important annual event in the History Faculty calendar.

Though sometimes elected from among the Oxford History Faculty, the Ford Lecturer is often a distinguished visitor from elsewhere in the United Kingdom, or further afield. Towards the end of the series, the Lecturer generally convenes a seminar for faculty members and students, where the themes and ideas of the series are discussed.

The lectures alternate between medieval, early modern and modern history. They bring the opportunity for distinguished scholars to present their work to an Oxford audience, in a scholarly but accessible way. The attendance, which is often very large, habitually includes people from the local community as well as many from outside Oxford.

The Lectures invariably result in important books, many of them classic and pioneering works of British history.

Hilary Term 2025 – French in Medieval Britain: Cultural Politics and Social History, c. 1100-c. 1500
French played a major, though not the only role, in the pervasive multilingualism of British history and culture. As Britain’s only medieval ‘global’ vernacular, it was also important to a wide range of people for their participation in external theatres of empire, trade, culture, conflict, and crusade. Displacing the long shadow of nineteenth-century nationalizing conceptions of language and their entrenchment in modern university disciplinary divisions, emerging histories of French in England and increasingly of French in Ireland, Wales, and Scotland offer new ways of understanding language and identity. These lectures trace francophone medieval Britain in a chronological sequence across its four main centuries, interpolating two thematic lectures on areas especially needing integration into our histories, medieval women and French in Britain, and French Bible translation in medieval England.
Type: Seminar Series
Timing: Thursdays 17:00 South School, Examination Schools
Web Address: https://www.history.ox.ac.uk/james-ford-lectures-british-history
Organising department: Faculty of History

Talks:

Thursday 23 January 2025

“Alle mine thegenas … frencisce & englisce”: The Languages of 1066 – And All That
Date: 23 January 2025, 17:00 - 18:00
Speaker : Professor Jocelyn Wogan-Browne (Fordham University)
Venue: Examination Schools, 75-81 High Street OX1 4BG
Venue Details: South School
Organisers: TBA
Hosts: TBA

Thursday 30 January 2025

Langue des reines: The Importance of Women to French and French to Women
Date: 30 January 2025, 17:00 - 18:00
Speaker : Professor Jocelyn Wogan-Browne (Fordham University)
Venue: Examination Schools, 75-81 High Street OX1 4BG
Venue Details: South School
Organisers: TBA
Hosts: TBA

Thursday 6 February 2025

Expansions: ‘Everyone knows that French is better understood and more widely used than Latin’: Matthew Paris (in French, 1253x59)
Date: 6 February 2025, 17:00 - 18:00
Speaker : Professor Jocelyn Wogan-Browne (Fordham University)
Venue: Examination Schools, 75-81 High Street OX1 4BG
Venue Details: South School
Organisers: TBA
Hosts: TBA

Thursday 13 February 2025

"That each may in his own tongue … know his God" (Grosseteste, in French, 1230s): Bible Translation in Medieval England
Date: 13 February 2025, 17:00 - 18:00
Speaker : Professor Jocelyn Wogan-Browne (Fordham University)
Venue: Examination Schools, 75-81 High Street OX1 4BG
Venue Details: South School
Organisers: TBA
Hosts: TBA

Thursday 20 February 2025

“Lette Frenchmen in their Frenche endyten” (Thomas Usk, c.1384-87): French in the Multilingual Fourteenth Century
Date: 20 February 2025, 17:00 - 18:00
Speaker : Professor Jocelyn Wogan-Browne (Fordham University)
Venue: Examination Schools, 75-81 High Street OX1 4BG
Venue Details: South School
Organisers: TBA
Hosts: TBA

Thursday 27 February 2025

“Et lors que parlerez anglois /Que vous n’oubliez pas le François” (manuscript dedication, c. 1445): Off-shoring French?
Date: 27 February 2025, 17:00 - 18:00
Speaker : Professor Jocelyn Wogan-Browne (Fordham University)
Venue: Examination Schools, 75-81 High Street OX1 4BG
Venue Details: South School
Organisers: TBA
Hosts: TBA

Editors: Laura Spence, Belinda Clark