Alexander Stafford MP says that medieval history should be taught more in England’s schools: the focus on Henry VIII and Hitler is too narrow, and vast chunks of our story are left out. He is right. An approach to history that deals with characters and events in isolation gives the impression that they came out of nowhere, but modern Britain did not fall from space. The roots of our political order lie in 19th-century reform, the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the Reformation and, stretching back to the medieval era, Magna Carta.
