The Politics of Flooding in Early Modern England

The early modern centuries featured some of the most significant and destructive floods in English history. Large events such as the 1570 flooding of eastern England and the 1607 south-west floods killed people and livestock, destroyed buildings, and generated spiritual reflection and reforming zeal. However, alongside these dramatic moments of disaster, many English communities lived with and alongside recurrent flooding, harnessing its benefits for their livelihoods. This lecture explores how flooding at various scales became politically significant as changing economic, legal, and constitutional contexts made the management of flooding a problem of growing importance.

John Emrys Morgan is a Senior Lecturer in geography at the University of Bristol. He received his PhD in history from the University of Warwick in 2016, and has published on a wide range of topics in the environmental history of early modern England, including flooding, great fires, water management, and human relationships with pigeons.

This year’s summer lecture series examines how societies have understood, managed, and monetized environmental change. Drawing on approaches from environmental history, historical climatology, and science and technology studies, the series spans a wide chronological range, from the Middle Ages to the late twentieth century. Fourteenth-century English weather records feature alongside early modern flood politics, Cold War hydrology, and the valuation of monsoon risk. Taken together, these perspectives highlight the diverse ways in which environmental knowledge has shaped—and been shaped by—political, economic, and scientific practices.

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Host or Publisher German Historical Institute London