Debbie Kilroy
Writer at GetHistoryDebbie Kilroy is a writer and historian. Having read history at the University of Birmingham as an undergraduate, where she won the Kenrick Prize, she founded the award-winning ‘Get History’ platform in 2014 with the aim of bringing accessible yet high quality history-telling and debate to a wide audience. Since then, she has completed a Masters in Historical Studies at the University of Oxford, receiving a distinction and the Kellogg College Community Engagement and Impact Award. An Associate Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, her first book, Members Behaving Badly: A History of Britain in 52 Parliamentary Rogues was published by Elliott & Thompson in 2026. Her article for Parliaments, Estates and Representation won the international ICHRPI Emile Lousse prize for the best political essay by an up-and-coming historian.
The Latest from Debbie Kilroy
Death in the Stone Age
The way people deal with their dead can tell us a lot about them. It can tell us if they can think on an abstract level, whether they understand the concept of death (that it is final and irreversible rather than thinking simply ‘that person was there, and now they’re not’), and that they can think deeply about a person, their life and death.
Anne Boleyn: Adulteress and Traitor?
Anne Boleyn was executed on 19 May 1536, just three years after becoming King Henry VIII's second wife. She has gone down in history as an adulteress and as someone who looked somewhat odd: legend says that she had six fingers and a wen, or lump, on her neck.
Edward the Confessor
Edward the Confessor, thought of as the penultimate Anglo-Saxon king, died childless on 5th January 1066, sparking the chain of events that led to the invasion of William of Normandy in September 1066. As the name implies, he is remembered as exceptionally pious, and was responsible for commissioning the building of Westminster Abbey.
The Peasants' Revolt of 1381
In May 1381, government demands to pay a poll tax started widespread rebellion in what became known as the Peasants' Revolt. Groups of people from Essex and Kent marched on London seeking social reform, inspiring others as they went. Leaders of the Revolt met with Richard II, who granted their demands, only to change his mind later.
Julius Caesar's Invasion of Britain
What could possibly have encouraged the Romans to invade a land on the edge of the known world, whose 'sky is obscured by continual rain and cloud'? Surely the Romans had enough to be doing: in western Europe, they were still occupied with subduing the tribes of Gaul (modern France) and Germany, nor were they free from civil unrest at home.
Henry VI: the Weak King?
Henry VI has gone down in history as a weak and mentally unstable king, swayed too easily by his court favourites and his over-bearing wife. He is compared unfavourably with his father who had success in battle and in laying siege to towns.
