Iain MacInnes
banner
iainmacinnesuhi.bsky.social
Iain MacInnes
@iainmacinnesuhi.bsky.social
Academic | Historian | Associate Dean | Scottish History | Medieval History | Military History | Medievalism | Comics Studies | Stoke City
Pinned
As I've garnered a few more followers recently, I shall follow the example of others and do some introductions. I am (normally) a medieval historian of fourteenth-century Scotland, with a focus on the Scottish Wars of Indepedence. My monograph was on the period of the second war. #medievalsky
Scotland's Second War of Independence, 1332-1357 - Boydell and Brewer
Full-length study of the warfare between England and Scotland in the mid fourteenth century.The Second Scottish War of Independence began in 1332, only four ...
boydellandbrewer.com
Reposted by Iain MacInnes
It's been a pleasure being on the great organising team at York and Northumbria for next year's NEHN meeting - a collaborative worksop on the many histories of 'unwanted life'. Do see the CFP below, and send in a submission if it appeals!
December 1, 2025 at 11:46 AM
Reposted by Iain MacInnes
A blast from my past - the Medieval Soldier database takes nearly 300,000 military service records from 1369-1453 and makes them available as a searchable database.

An invaluable resource for understanding medieval warfare, society and the English medieval state. Learn more in the link. 🗃️
We built a database of 290,000 English medieval soldiers – here’s what it reveals
We created the database in order to challenge assumptions about the lack of professionalism of everyday soldiers.
theconversation.com
December 2, 2025 at 10:17 AM
Reposted by Iain MacInnes
You can explore the data in this great report. My point is not to set one subject against another but that the stereotypes about humanities employability need a bit of probing, and shouldn’t be the thing that put someone off what they want to study
graduatemarkettrends.cdn.prismic.io/graduatemark...
December 1, 2025 at 9:29 PM
Reposted by Iain MacInnes
'Some of the blame for this can be laid at the door of successive governments [for failing to support music in schools]....But universities, equally, have hardly been putting in much effort to make a positive case to the wider world about the intrinsic value of arts and humanities programmes.' 3/3
December 1, 2025 at 11:36 AM
Reposted by Iain MacInnes
{New Book} Save 25% with ARC25 -This volume aims to shed new light on a topic pertaining to multiple fields of research: social history, technical medical history, disability history, military history, & the Genesis of the Modern State. www.arc-humanities.org/978180270164...
December 1, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Reposted by Iain MacInnes
Sigh. So, scabies has been around since before Aristotle. It is not a “medieval” disease and this rhetoric contributes to the idea that the Middle Ages was unclean. The Roman physician Celsus is the 1 who named it—from the Latin scabere (“to itch”). Stop making the Middle Ages into a backward period
Medieval skin disease outbreak in the UK leaves patients’ skin ‘crawling’
Several cases of scabies have been reported in schools in Devon
www.ladbible.com
November 30, 2025 at 11:44 PM
Reposted by Iain MacInnes
“Scholarly effort is in decline everywhere as never before. Indeed, cleverness is shunned at home and abroad. What does reading offer to pupils except tears?”

this guy has his finger on the pulse amirite

www.history-uk.ac.uk/history-in-p... 🗃️
‘Doing the Readings’
Dr Will Pooley (Associate Professor in Modern History), University of Bristol The students, we often grumble, don’t read the secondary readings we set for class. Every year, we find ourselves press…
www.history-uk.ac.uk
November 28, 2025 at 6:13 PM
This St Andrew's Day, it is worth noting that it's also the anniversary of the Battle of Culblean (1335). This lesser-known battle of the Scottish civil war/Second Scottish War of Independence was arguably pivotal. See more about it below... #medievalsky #ScottishHistory #StAndrewsDay
Battle on St Andrew’s Day: Culblean and the Scottish Wars of Independence - Bylines Scotland
Dr Iain MacInnes delves into the battle of Culblaen, a major turning point in the lesser-studied Second Scottish War of Independence.
bylines.scot
November 30, 2025 at 11:49 AM
FFS...
This is the most alarming story I’ve read today. Giving up the fight before it’s started
November 30, 2025 at 10:13 AM
Reposted by Iain MacInnes
'Bols and Maguire trace the current financial problems higher education institutions are facing back to the government’s decision to remove the limit on student numbers in 2015-16 and deregulate student recruitment, while maintaining caps on tuition fees, thus limiting universities’ income.' 2/3
November 28, 2025 at 7:38 AM
Reposted by Iain MacInnes
'The dig team at the Ness, one of the most important Neolithic sites in the British Isles, are not revealing what they believe the find to be until more work is done.

But they say it is like nothing else ever found at the site – and may not even be Neolithic.'
'Extraordinary discovery' at Orkney's Ness of Brodgar Neolithic site
Archaeologists are to resume digging at the site after 3D radar technology uncovered a mystery find.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 27, 2025 at 1:16 PM
Reposted by Iain MacInnes
Immigration is collapsing, and will continue to do so - perhaps even more quickly. We need to reverse engines and encourage it, right away.
November 27, 2025 at 9:44 AM
Reposted by Iain MacInnes
1/5 It was entirely predictable that The Telegraph would jump on @DavidOlusoga’s Empire series to fight its right wing culture war for control of our public history. Let’s see what they’ve done:
November 27, 2025 at 8:28 AM
Reposted by Iain MacInnes
New episode! We talk with the amazing Roland Betancourt about art, the allure of Byzantium, and the pull of teaching stuff where you live — so DISNEY

Listen here or on your favorite podcast app…

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a...
Disney and Byzantium with Roland Betancourt
Podcast Episode · American Medieval · 11/26/2025 · 1h
podcasts.apple.com
November 26, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Reposted by Iain MacInnes
Glasgow Girls Club's campaign includes a huge 96-sheet billboard on Tradeston Street that reads: "It's not girls who need teaching the art of rejection".
Young women in Glasgow launch 'billboard takeover' in protest against sexism
www.glasgowlive.co.uk
November 25, 2025 at 9:41 PM
Cracking sky this morning...
November 26, 2025 at 8:27 AM
Reposted by Iain MacInnes
"exiting the market" is a fun euphemism for thousands of students left without a school, thousands of people put out of work, entire local economies destroyed, and priceless knowledge lost.
November 25, 2025 at 8:09 PM
Reposted by Iain MacInnes
Read about our Dr Philippa Woodcock's research trip to Drum Castle for her project '"They wept together": Investigating miscarriage, taboo & support in early modern Scotland'.

Visit our website for the full piece, bit.ly/4p0DaaI

@thinkuhi.bsky.social

📷:Hugh Irvine, The Archangel Gabriel (NTS)
November 25, 2025 at 12:59 PM
So much for the government focusing on "growth". One of its most successful industries, and most economically (as well as culturally, socially, etc.) beneficial sectors, being left to burn for no apparent reason at all... #universities #highered #highereducation
"A system built on specialisation, efficiency", that right there is the death knell for the current university system in the UK, if (big if) government pushes it through. They actively don't want HE to grow, they will intervene, apparently, to help it shrink.

per this morning's education committee.
November 25, 2025 at 11:35 AM
Reposted by Iain MacInnes
New Tides of History: I talk with Professor Michael Livingston (@michaellivingston.com) about how the Hundred Years War actually lasted for 200 years, why we focus too much on England, and what this long medieval war tells us about our world today. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
Why the Hundred Years War Actually Lasted Two Hundred Years: Interview with Professor Michael Livingston
Podcast Episode · Tides of History · 11/20/2025 · 40m
podcasts.apple.com
November 24, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Reposted by Iain MacInnes
I'd like to see the response to this if the question added "if that that means universities have less money to spend on UK students".
With Rachel Reeves reportedly set to apply a new tax on tuition fees paid by overseas students, most Britons support such a move at the previously mooted level of 6%

Support: 57%
Oppose: 18%

yougov.co.uk/topics/socie...
November 24, 2025 at 4:41 PM
Reposted by Iain MacInnes
Want to learn about medieval coroners, tithings & the frankpledge system, crime & punishment, peacekeeping, the hue & cry, amercements, etc? Then check out my article “The limits of strong government: attempts to control criminality in thirteenth-century England”.

academic.oup.com/histres/arti...
The limits of strong government: attempts to control criminality in thirteenth-century England*
Abstract. This article examines how far centrally-directed structures of peacekeeping influenced communal reactions to criminality in thirteenth-century En
academic.oup.com
November 24, 2025 at 3:40 PM
Reposted by Iain MacInnes
#OTD 1542 Battle of Solway Moss, which led to the capture of c. 1200 Scots men, including several earls, many of whom were then forced to swear loyalty to Henry VIII of England. The battle was followed within a few weeks by the death of James V. bit.ly/1eGOFjT (Scotclans)
November 24, 2025 at 4:31 PM
Reposted by Iain MacInnes
Join us on Wednesday for the first in a series of three online workshops on Teaching Ancient War and Peace: arts.st-andrews.ac.uk/visualising-...
November 24, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Reposted by Iain MacInnes
We pour billions into saving an economically tiny steel industry whilst actively destroying one of our largest export industries. (Yes, higher education to overseas students who already massively subsidise UK students, are counted as exports).
i: Reeves to unveil £600m raid on foreign student
university fees #TomorrowsPapersToday
November 24, 2025 at 7:37 AM