Research
Scholarship and archival research
My training is in medieval English history, but I find myself researching all kinds of topics. My specialism is political history, but I lean strongly into intellectual, ecclesiastical, episcopal, and public history.
Archival Research
Medieval records are not exactly intuitive. The languages, customs, and letter formations are often very foreign to modern readers. I undertake archival research for individuals and institutions for family lineage and heritage, property research, and bespoke research projects.
I also collaborate with Sticks Research Agency, which is a professional genealogical and historical research firm based out of London.
If you have a research project or archival inquiry, please reach out.
Personal Research Focus
My research draws together intellectual, political, and ecclesiastical history to examine royal power and authority in late-medieval England. My doctoral thesis, completed at Lancaster University, focuses on the minority government of Richard II (r. 1377–1399), from his ascension in June 1377 through the disbandment of his minority council in January 1380.
The thesis examines how royal power was negotiated and delegated during Richard’s youth, and how the political community drew from existing models of administration and sovereignty across political and philosophical precedents.
My current work draws from my MA thesis, which looks at the Protectorate government of Henry VI from 1422 to 1429.
Related areas of interest
- The minority governments of Henry III, Edward II, and Henry VI
- Administrative practices and royal culture under Edward III
- Episcopal and ecclesiastical history of the fourteenth century
- Intellectual history, especially political theology and constitutional monarchy
- The Protectorate government of Henry VI
- Papal history of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
- Medieval universities
- Jurisprudence across medieval Christendom
Fields and methods
I enjoy pulling on the threads of political, intellectual, and ecclesiastical histories, especially when viewed through a comparative lens. My preferred methods for research involve close reading of archival material, edited primary sources, prosopographical analysis, and textual transmission.
I read medieval Latin and Anglo-Norman French and am trained in paleography from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries.
Current work in development
Three projects are currently in development, each extending themes from my doctoral research into new questions about royal authority, ecclesiastical learning, and the practice of late-medieval English government.
Late-medieval Episcopal Learning
A prosopographical analysis of English bishops and university education, examining the intellectual formation of the late-medieval episcopate and its relationship to royal governance.
Collective Government During the Minority of Richard II
Re-examining the institutional shape of royal authority during the minority years of 1377–1380, with attention to how shared power operated in practice beyond the formal continual councils.
The Minority of Richard II: A Mirror of Late-Plantagenet Royal Power
A book-length project extending the doctoral research, reading the minority government as a window onto the assumptions, anxieties, and constitutional grammar of fourteenth-century English royal power.
Education and supervision
- PhD, History — Lancaster University, 2024. Dissertation: The Minority Government of Richard II, 1377–1380. Supervised by Dr Sophie Thérèse Ambler and Dr Alex Metcalfe.
- MA, History (with Distinction) — Lancaster University, 2019. Thesis: Precedent and Politics: Re-Evaluating the Protectorate, 1422–1429.
- BA, Sociology — The University of Texas at Austin, 2004. Minor in Business Administration.