Jonathan Healey
@jonathanhealey.bsky.social
Historian and Occasional Book-writer (https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/blazing-world-9781526621696/)
Works at Oxford University. New book, The Blood in Winter, out now!
https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/blood-in-winter-9781526672292/
Works at Oxford University. New book, The Blood in Winter, out now!
https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/blood-in-winter-9781526672292/
Reposted by Jonathan Healey
Juries are not perfect.
Many of the worst miscarriages of justice have followed jury trials.
But the merit of juries is not so much the power they have, but the power they prevent others from having.
They mean a judge cannot just nod-along with prosecution evidence and give a guilty verdict.
Many of the worst miscarriages of justice have followed jury trials.
But the merit of juries is not so much the power they have, but the power they prevent others from having.
They mean a judge cannot just nod-along with prosecution evidence and give a guilty verdict.
November 25, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Juries are not perfect.
Many of the worst miscarriages of justice have followed jury trials.
But the merit of juries is not so much the power they have, but the power they prevent others from having.
They mean a judge cannot just nod-along with prosecution evidence and give a guilty verdict.
Many of the worst miscarriages of justice have followed jury trials.
But the merit of juries is not so much the power they have, but the power they prevent others from having.
They mean a judge cannot just nod-along with prosecution evidence and give a guilty verdict.
If the government abolishes trial by jury and recreates the Star Chamber, can the revisionist Civil War historians claim it as REFable Impact?
November 25, 2025 at 2:33 PM
If the government abolishes trial by jury and recreates the Star Chamber, can the revisionist Civil War historians claim it as REFable Impact?
Reposted by Jonathan Healey
What’s that? You want an introductory BONUS episode of Uprising? Featuring @jonathanhealey.bsky.social and myself? No problem!
In this special @historyextra.bsky.social episode with Emily Briffett we give our five key moments of the conflict - do you agree?
www.historyextra.com/period/upris...
In this special @historyextra.bsky.social episode with Emily Briffett we give our five key moments of the conflict - do you agree?
www.historyextra.com/period/upris...
Uprising: the Civil Wars untangled
Rebecca Rideal and Jonathan Healey uncover the dramatic events that led to the execution of Charles I
www.historyextra.com
November 24, 2025 at 7:29 PM
What’s that? You want an introductory BONUS episode of Uprising? Featuring @jonathanhealey.bsky.social and myself? No problem!
In this special @historyextra.bsky.social episode with Emily Briffett we give our five key moments of the conflict - do you agree?
www.historyextra.com/period/upris...
In this special @historyextra.bsky.social episode with Emily Briffett we give our five key moments of the conflict - do you agree?
www.historyextra.com/period/upris...
Had great fun chatting to @rebeccarideal.bsky.social about her brilliant new Civil War podcast, with Emily Briffett, here:
www.historyextra.com/period/upris...
www.historyextra.com/period/upris...
Uprising: the Civil Wars untangled
Rebecca Rideal and Jonathan Healey uncover the dramatic events that led to the execution of Charles I
www.historyextra.com
November 24, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Had great fun chatting to @rebeccarideal.bsky.social about her brilliant new Civil War podcast, with Emily Briffett, here:
www.historyextra.com/period/upris...
www.historyextra.com/period/upris...
Reading Ronald Hutton’s Cromwell biography in public but remembering to shake my head and tut vigorously so people don’t think I approve of (either) the subject (and/or) the interpretation (depending on taste).
November 24, 2025 at 11:47 AM
Reading Ronald Hutton’s Cromwell biography in public but remembering to shake my head and tut vigorously so people don’t think I approve of (either) the subject (and/or) the interpretation (depending on taste).
These film titles are getting ridiculous
November 20, 2025 at 9:54 AM
These film titles are getting ridiculous
No-one in the world wants a new Mendelssohn/Bruch, and the choral Lark is bloody weird, but I did enjoy this record a lot.
November 19, 2025 at 5:50 PM
No-one in the world wants a new Mendelssohn/Bruch, and the choral Lark is bloody weird, but I did enjoy this record a lot.
I imagine this will be delightfully controversial, but ‘to caulk gaps in incomplete scholarship and large datasets’. Is that just a fancy way of saying ‘make stuff up’?
November 14, 2025 at 12:45 PM
I imagine this will be delightfully controversial, but ‘to caulk gaps in incomplete scholarship and large datasets’. Is that just a fancy way of saying ‘make stuff up’?
Reposted by Jonathan Healey
Reposted by Jonathan Healey
and we're all just okay with this are we
An ensemble of 374 bagpipers has claimed a new world record by playing AC/DC's "It's a Long Way to the Top."
Bagpipers claim world record with AC/DC's 'It's a Long Way to the Top'
An ensemble of 374 bagpipers has claimed a new world record by playing AC/DC’s “It’s a Long Way to the Top.”
bit.ly
November 13, 2025 at 8:37 AM
and we're all just okay with this are we
Reposted by Jonathan Healey
That’s some nominative determinism right there
November 12, 2025 at 9:15 PM
That’s some nominative determinism right there
Reposted by Jonathan Healey
my mac doing its best to telephone a seventeenth century ecclesiastical record 🗃️
November 12, 2025 at 11:29 AM
my mac doing its best to telephone a seventeenth century ecclesiastical record 🗃️
Our robot overlords nailing it once more....
November 12, 2025 at 9:14 AM
Our robot overlords nailing it once more....
English Catholics in 1678:
November 10, 2025 at 10:52 PM
English Catholics in 1678:
Reposted by Jonathan Healey
www.worldturnedupsidedown.co.uk/product/the-... published today, a fantastic teaching resource and a super Xmas present. With contributions from @annlaurahughes.bsky.social @isminipells.bsky.social @waseemahmed98.bsky.social @denisegreany.bsky.social Richard Cust, Andy Hopper (Ed.) Oh, and me.
The civil wars in 100 objects - The World Turned Upside Down
The civil wars that took place between 1638 and 1651, and their aftermath, were the most destabilising conflicts that the British and Irish peoples have ever endured. During these times everyday peop...
www.worldturnedupsidedown.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 5:31 PM
www.worldturnedupsidedown.co.uk/product/the-... published today, a fantastic teaching resource and a super Xmas present. With contributions from @annlaurahughes.bsky.social @isminipells.bsky.social @waseemahmed98.bsky.social @denisegreany.bsky.social Richard Cust, Andy Hopper (Ed.) Oh, and me.
Neither is Cromwell... what??
November 10, 2025 at 8:58 PM
Neither is Cromwell... what??
I always associate this image with Keith Wrightson, as it's used as the cover for his brilliant book 'Earthly Necessities'.
Studies of his six servants in the 1750s: masterful oil sketch by William Hogarth, who was born on this day in 1697.
November 10, 2025 at 8:08 PM
I always associate this image with Keith Wrightson, as it's used as the cover for his brilliant book 'Earthly Necessities'.
Reposted by Jonathan Healey
Let's play Bucks Name or Name Name
November 7, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Let's play Bucks Name or Name Name
Spotted this out and about in Witney today. Official listing says c. 1730 but looks like the gable end preserves the outline of an even older house.
November 8, 2025 at 9:23 PM
Spotted this out and about in Witney today. Official listing says c. 1730 but looks like the gable end preserves the outline of an even older house.
Only if we also bring back compulsory archery practice and call it ‘shooting at the butts’.
With Maurice Glasman and Dominic Lawson calling for the return of the stocks, we find most Britons opposed - although Reform voters are divided
All Britons: 21% support / 72% oppose
Lib Dem: 12% / 85%
Labour: 12% / 83%
Green: 13% / 82%
Con: 28% / 64%
Reform: 43% / 48%
yougov.co.uk/society/arti...
All Britons: 21% support / 72% oppose
Lib Dem: 12% / 85%
Labour: 12% / 83%
Green: 13% / 82%
Con: 28% / 64%
Reform: 43% / 48%
yougov.co.uk/society/arti...
November 7, 2025 at 12:23 PM
Only if we also bring back compulsory archery practice and call it ‘shooting at the butts’.
Reposted by Jonathan Healey
BBC really burying the lede there
November 7, 2025 at 12:07 PM
BBC really burying the lede there
And the man behind Charles I's 'Book of Orders' of 1631, which helped quicken the implementation of the Elizabethan Poor Laws.
Died #OTD 1642, Henry Montagu, 1st Earl of Manchester. MP from 1593 to 1614 and Lord High Treasurer 1620-1621. A renowned lawyer, he is best remembered as the judge that sentenced Sir Walter Raleigh to death in 1618.
historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1604-...
historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1604-...
November 7, 2025 at 12:06 PM
And the man behind Charles I's 'Book of Orders' of 1631, which helped quicken the implementation of the Elizabethan Poor Laws.
New response to peer reviewers just dropped
Finnur Dellsén got a nice pic of me on my standard Q&A slide, so now I have a stock reply to any time anyone disagrees with me.
November 7, 2025 at 11:34 AM
New response to peer reviewers just dropped
Bloody lovely to see Luke Ayling scoring last minute goals and still attempting his infamous cartwheel. One of the nicest guys in football who even has me rooting for Middlesbrough in the Championship.
November 5, 2025 at 8:00 AM
Bloody lovely to see Luke Ayling scoring last minute goals and still attempting his infamous cartwheel. One of the nicest guys in football who even has me rooting for Middlesbrough in the Championship.