Edward IV had won the Battle of Towton and seen the Lancastrian threat to his rule pushed into a few far-flung corners of the kingdom. This didn’t mean that his position was secure though. On a very simple level, people may consider if he had any right to be king. In an age where legitimacy was hugely significant, his right to rule was an area that needed to be addressed, and publically. This lesson analyses one source, the Edward IV Roll, in an exploration of the way in which issues of legitimacy were dealt with by medieval kings. It makes use of academic theory to develop students understanding of scholarship in this field.
Teaching Issue: Understanding Sources
Students often struggle to comprehend the full meaning of visual sources. Yet these images are very important to us in terms of developing an understanding of the past, in the context of the period. The teaching of skills required when analysing visual sources starts at an early age: it is not uncommon to see Primary School teachers discussing source-based work in social media discussions. Yet by Key Stage 4, the expectation remains quite limited, the provenance, usefulness, limitations of individual sources with relatively little incentive to go into all that much depth: why bother for so few marks? At A-Level a much more robust approach to visual sources is useful for the students. It:
- Addresses skills that will be tested on some examination papers
- Provides an opportunity to develop a really good sense of period, which in turn lends itself to a much broader and deeper comprehension of a wide range of issues
- Makes use of academic toolkits which is ideal preparation for any future study of history at undergraduate level
Lesson Overview: Analysing the Edward IV Roll in progressive steps
This lesson addresses these issues by looking at one visual source: The Edward IV Roll.
Step One: First impressions
The lesson begins with relatively simple questioning of the source. This allows you to identify quite quickly how well prepared the students are for more rigorous appraisal of sources. This is particularly helpful in instances where students are unknown to the teachers, or where the students are wholly unfamiliar with medieval sources.
Step Two: Information and Context
Following an introductory look at the first section of the Edward IV roll, there is a guided analysis. This uses hotspots with information about specific parts of the roll. From there, you can return to questions about the source and demonstrate increased understanding. Additional questions could be asked regarding the period itself.
Step Three: An Academic Analysis
Finally, the lesson makes use of an academic toolkit. Students are introduced to Peter Burke’s Ten Commandments for Visual Sources and reflect upon these in relation to the Edward IV Roll.
First Impressions of the Edward IV Roll
Discussion Points
- What does the Roll appear to show?
- What would be the purpose of showing this? Think about prestige, politics, societal values and diplomatic relations.
- What types of symbolism are used in this image?
- The full roll is roughly 6.5 metres (21 feet) long. Why would such a large manuscript be prepared?
- Given its size, where would the roll, or copies of it, be put on display?
- Who might the intended audience of such an illustrated manuscript be?
Discuss these questions with students. They will get them thinking about the Roll, its functions, intended audience and the symbolism within it. This may result in some misconceptions or mistakes, which can be addressed in the next part of the lesson.
Information and Context
Below is the first section of the Edward IV Roll. The full roll is very long, including a History of the Universe that is intertwined with the Family Tree of Edward IV and the Yorkist line. It incorporates traditional myths and legends, religious symbolism and visualises titles held by Edward that are historically linked to the crown.
The image has 13 hotspots embedded. Click on them to find out more about the purpose and significance of this feature.
[h5p id=”20″]
Having looked at the first section of the roll and seen the (limited) contextual information that the hotspots provide, you can return to the original discussion points. Have any answers changed? Can students answer in more depth now? Additionally, you can ask:
- What influences are there on the artistic impression being given in the Edward IV Roll?
- Is the Roll based on fact?
- Do students think that the Edward IV Roll is unique in its approach?
The roll is based on numerous things. The religious symbolism links to Edward’s divine right to be king. The heraldic content links him to the crowns of England, France and Spain whilst also affirming his inheritance through legal precedents established for the Duchy of Cornwall. This section of the Roll also shows his strength, reminding all of his great victories at Mortimer’s Cross and Towton, with himself being a warrior king.
Students should by now realise that the Roll is intending to state:
- Edward’s historical right to be King
- His divine right to be King
- Edward’s military superiority and role as an upholder of the law
- That Edward is the natural heir to Edward III
- The Plantagenet claim to be the rightful Kings of France
- Claim to the throne of Castile / Spain
- Lineage: rightful heir through descendency from Brutus, the legendary founder of the nation
Academic Approach – Peter Burke’s methods
This section of the learning process is based on some of the work conducted by Peter Burke. Burke was one of the first academic historians to make the case for the use of visual evidence. In many senses, he is one of the originators of the current drive to include material culture within educational settings as his pioneering work resulted in other historians taking up the ideas and developing them in a range of multidisciplinary approaches. Burke himself refined his ideas about the use of visual evidence and these were published in 2008 in Eyewitnessing: The Uses of Images as Historical Evidence.
Students should know that they will be using ideas from a preeminent historian in the field. This brief review of Eyewitnessing is a good indication of Burke’s work:
“As Peter Burke illustrates in Eyewitnessing, images have a long tradition of distorting the facts. Of what use, then, are images to scholars of history? What types of historical evidence do images provide? Burke sets out to answer these questions. His book is intended to encourage and instruct readers in the historiographic use of images, and it succeeds splendidly on both counts. . . . Through an impressive array of case studies, Burke demonstrates the value of images to historians while providing instructive warnings about their use. . . . For those new to the study of images, Eyewitnessing provides an accessible and practical introduction to the historiographic use of visual culture. For art historians and scholars already committed to the study of visual phenomena, Burke’s book serves as a cogent reminder of the complex relations between images and history.”–Technology and Culture
An Academic Profile of Burke is available in the British Library Archive.
Using Burke’s Principles with A-Level Students
One of Burke’s best-known pieces of academic literature included Ten Commandments for Visual SOurces. It is those Ten Commandments that form the basis of this academic approach to the source: which will require students to access materials away from this website.
Burke’s Ten Commandments
Discover whether or not a given image derives from direct observation or from another image
Images need to be located in their cultural tradition, including the rules or conventions of representation
Other things being equal, the further into the background a given detail can be found, the more reliable it is likely to be
Study the reception and especially the re-employment of images as a means of revealing their past functions
Be aware of the possibility of manipulation, including digital manipulation
Be aware of the mediator(s)
As in the case of written documents, two or more images are better than one
Be aware of the context of images, or more exactly of contexts in the plural. [There is the material context, for instance: the image that we now often see in a museum needs to be imagined in its original position in a church or palace. Again, it makes a difference to the way in which we see portraits if we know that in Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries these portraits were often hung in groups.]
Be aware of the interaction between the image and the world outside it.
The last rule is that there are no rules, because of the variety of images and also the variety of questions that a historian might want to ask of them.
Teaching Point: Burke’s Commandments
For many students, this level of interaction with a visual source will be quite a leap. Take some time to discuss the ten points, explain the commandments to them if necessary, ask questions about them, offer modern visuals as examples that may be more immediately understandable to your students (Memes stand out as ones that are reasonably easy to identify the various component parts and meanings for).
Questions based on Burke’s Ten Commandments
- Discover whether or not a given image derives from direct observation or from another image. Where have different parts of the imagery used in the Roll come from? See this website for details.
- Images need to be located in their cultural tradition, including the rules or conventions of representation. Discuss: What other examples are there of artistic pieces of work commissioned in roughly the same period? Are there any examples that are commissioned by Royals? Was there a general style amongst European Royalty at the time to have such Rolls produced? If so, does this example conform to the norms? (See notes at foot of this section).
- Other things being equal, the further into the background a given detail can be found, the more reliable it is likely to be. What level of background is given in the Roll? Does that amount of background within the source itself mean that it is a reliable representation of what Edward himself believed? What might the alternatives be?
- Study the reception and especially the re-employment of images as a means of revealing their past functions. As students will have established when looking at the second rule, this was not the first Roll of its kind, nor was it the last. Discuss in groups or as a class: What was the function of such a roll at the time? Why were they created? How would they have been received by different audiences at the time?
- Be aware of the possibility of manipulation, including digital manipulation. Is there any evidence that the Edward IV roll has been manipulated in any way? Look at a number of digital copies of the Roll to identify any digital manipulations. For a curators record, see the British Library or Penn State University.
- Be aware of the mediator(s). Is there any evidence of bias in the work of the artist? In this case, there is. What leads the mediator (artist) to be biased?
- As in the case of written documents, two or more images are better than one. What other contemporary images relating to Edward IV are there? How do they compare to the Edward IV roll? Are there any written sources on Edward’s legitimacy and / genealogy that can be used as comparisons?
- Be aware of the context of images, or more exactly of contexts in the plural. [There is the material context, for instance: the image that we now often see in a museum needs to be imagined in its original position in a church or palace. Again, it makes a difference to the way in which we see portraits if we know that in Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries these portraits were often hung in groups.] Where was the Roll used and for what purpose?
- Be aware of the interaction between the image and the world outside it. Who would have seen the Roll at the time? How would the Roll be used to transmit ideas into wider society? Who was it aimed at and why?
- The last rule is that there are no rules, because of the variety of images and also the variety of questions that a historian might want to ask of them. What questions do students have about the Edward IV Roll that they have not already established an answer to through their consideration of the previous 9 of Burke’s Commandments for Visual Sources?
Note: Genealogical Rolls were not new. The Lancastrians had produced them to demonstrate their line to the throne, which included removing some people from the family tree! Some examples of alternatives are mentioned here.
Summary
Discuss the ways in which academic historians such as Burke interact with visual sources. Why is this approach important? What can be learned from visual sources that we cannot necessarily learn from other types of source? Also consider why this particular example is not as well known as other intricate pieces of artwork? In this case perhaps referencing Tudor Portraits and the painting of the Field of the Cloth of Gold would be helpful as it may reinforce the fact that those in power could determine what was and wasn’t visible: ie it is a propaganda mechanism. Other rolls from the period include the Rous Roll which is interesting in that the monarchy changed hands from Richard III to Henry VII whilst Rous was writing. That example shows a change in tone which could form the basis of a later lesson.
Recommended Reading
Free Library – analysis and history of the Edward IV Roll.
