Public evening lecture by Professor Dr h.c. Lyndal Roper, PhD (University of Oxford, Faculty of History)

I walked into the Rüstkammer in Vienna not expecting to see anything of interest and nearly tripped over: there was a line of men, all of whom I recognised from my work on the Peasants’ War. I was struck most by the long, shapely legs of Philipp of Hesse, the future bigamist, the man who, in alliance with his father-in-law Duke Georg of Saxony, slaughtered 6,000 peasants at Frankenhausen. Sure enough, his wife Christine wrote to her father Georg about those legs, after Georg had warned her to make sure Philipp did not injure them whilst out hunting. Luther’s stoutness, Philipp of Hesse’s legs—these physical characteristics need to be part of their biographies. But how, and how might we incorporate the physical into social and cultural history?

Lyndal Roper was Regius Professor of History at the University of Oxford. Her most recent book, *Für die Freiheit. Der Bauernkrieg 1525 (2025) won the Cundill Prize. She has also written a biography of Martin Luther. She was awarded the prestigious Holberg Prize in 2026.

Moderator: Professor Dr Cornelia Linde