Watch the 2021 Lisa Jardine Memorial Lecture

How should historians study emotions to help them understand the past? The German Peasants' War of 1524-6 was the biggest popular uprising in Western Europe before the French Revolution.

It altered the course of the Lutheran Reformation, making it far more conservative. Thousands were slain as the revolt was bloodily suppressed. 

On Thursday 4 March 2021, Professor Lyndal Roper gave the Lisa Jardine Memorial Lecture to an online audience. Professor Roper discussed the emotional patterns and theological background of this rebellion, and asked, what made people risk everything to rise up against the aristocracy? 

After her lecture, Professor Roper answered questions chaired by College Fellow Professor Mary Laven. Because attendance was not constrained by the number of seats in the Frankopan Hall, this was the largest audience yet in the lecture series.

Professor Roper is the Regius Professor of History at Oriel College, Oxford.

Lyndal Roper’s lecture is part of a series in memory of Lisa Jardine (1944-2015). Lisa made a huge contribution across a wide area as a Professor of Renaissance Studies, author, broadcaster, Chair of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Agency and more.