The Royal Studies Podcast

In this episode, host Victoria Barlow is joined by guest Susannah Lyon-Whaley to discuss the royal links with early 17th century gardening practices and the A Queen's Book of Flowers exhibition running until the end of June in York. Listen in to be transported into the charming landscape of queen Henrietta Maria's England and the exotic plants that were being cultivated there.For more information on the exhibition visit the webpage: https://susannahlyon-whale.wixsite.com/queensbookofflowersGuest Bio:Susannah Lyon-Whaley is a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellow (UKRI-guaranteed) at the University of York. She completed a PhD in Art History at the University of Auckland. She has published on Stuart queens and is the editor of Floral Culture and the Tudor and Stuart Court (Amsterdam University Press). Her new project is titled ‘Observing, Consuming, Engaging, Appropriating Nature (OCEAN): Queens Consorts and Ecologies of Knowledge in Seventeenth-Century Britain.' As part of this project she is working on an exhibition for the Festival of Ideas, which is the subject of this episode's talk.@susannah-lw.bsky.social

In this episode, host Dr Susannah Lyon-Whaley interviews Marlene Daut on her new book The First and Last King of Haiti, giving us an insight into this unusual example of Caribbean monarchy.An award-winning author, scholar, and professor specializing in Haitian history and culture, Marlene L. Daut's most recent book, The First and Last King of Haiti: The Rise and Fall of Henry Christophe (Knopf, 2025), explores the fascinating life of Haiti's only king while delving into the complex history of a 19th-century Caribbean monarchy. Her other books include Tropics of Haiti: Race and the Literary History of the Haitian Revolution in the Atlantic World (Liverpool UP, 2015); Baron de Vastey and the Origins of Black Atlantic Humanism (Palgrave, 2017); and Awakening the Ashes: An Intellectual History of the Haitian Revolution (UNC Press, 2023), co-winner of the Frederick Douglass Book Prize.

Dr Vincent O'Malley FRHistS FRSNZ is an award-winning and bestselling historian who has written and published extensively on the history of Māori and settler relations in New Zealand. His book Voices from the New Zealand Wars/He Reo nō ngā Pakanga o Aotearoa (BWB, 2021) won New Zealand's premier book award for non-fiction in 2022, and he received a Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement that same year. In 2023, he was awarded the Royal Society of New Zealand Te Apārangi's Humanities Aronui Medal. Dr O'Malley is a Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi and a founding partner of HistoryWorks, which specialises in Treaty of Waitangi research. His publications include:"Kingitanga and Crown: New Zealand's Maori King movement and its relationship with the British monarchy." In Crowns and Colonies: European Monarchies and Overseas Empire, 163-176. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2016. The Great War for New Zealand: Waikato 1800–2000. Wellington: Bridget Williams Books, 2016. The New Zealand Wars/Ngā Pakanga o Aotearoa. Wellington: Bridget Williams Books, 2019. Voices from the New Zealand Wars/He Reo nō ngā Pakanga o Aotearoa. Wellington: Bridget Williams Books, 2021.

Saira Baker chats with senior curator of photographs at the Royal Collection Trust and curator of the exhibition, Alessandro Nasini, in The King's Gallery at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh.‘Royal Portraits: A Century of Photography' charts the evolution of royal portrait photography from the 1920s to the present day, revealing the stories behind the creation of some of the most iconic images of the British Monarchy.Bringing together more than 90 photographic prints, proofs and documents from the Royal Collection and the Royal Archives, the exhibition – which follows a successful run in London – will also consider the artistic and technological advances in photography as it evolved into a recognised art form.Visitors will see glamorous images from the first half of the 20th century, taken by some of the most respected photographers of the era. All of the photographs in the exhibition are vintage prints – the original works produced by the photographer – and the earliest works date from the 1920s and 30s, the golden age of the society photographer. In the mid-20th century, no royal photographer had a greater impact on shaping the monarchy's public image than Cecil Beaton. The exhibition will present some of Beaton's most memorable photographs, taken over six decades. These include Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother's famed 1939 shoot in the Buckingham Palace Gardens, dressed in gowns designed by Norman Hartnell, and Beaton's original Coronation portraits of Queen Elizabeth II – arguably the most prestigious photography commission of the century.The bold and colourful later photographs in the exhibition will demonstrate the extraordinary variety, power, and at times playfulness of royal portrait photography over the past four decades. These works range from Andy Warhol's diamond-dust-sprinkled screen print of Queen Elizabeth II to well-known photographs by David Bailey, Nick Knight, Annie Leibovitz and more. The exhibition runs until 7 September 2025. For more information about the portraits discussed in this podcast, visit the Royal Collection Trust website and visit the exhibition in person. To book tickets and discover the events programme, see: https://www.rct.uk/collection/exhibitions/royal-portraits-a-century-of-photography/the-kings-gallery-palace-of-holyroodhouseTo find out more about visiting the other royal residences and exhibitions mentioned in the episode, see: https://www.rct.ukRoyal Collection Trust is a charity caring for the Royal Collection and welcoming visitors to the royal palaces. We bring our shared history to life through world-class experiences that involve and inspire people, wherever they are. Income from tickets and retail sales helps us to conserve the Collection so that it can be enjoyed by everyone for generations to come.

Megan Shaw is an art historian who recently completed her PhD at the University of Auckland with her thesis entitled ‘A Female Favourite: Katherine Villiers, Duchess of Buckingham (1603-1649)'. Megan's doctoral research was supported by a Junior Fellowship with the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. Her article on York House in the Furniture History journal includes a transcription of a newly discovered inventory of the Duchess of Buckingham's closets. Outside of academia she is an archivist and project manager at the Chartwell Collection Trust and her first book on Chartwell's philanthropy and this prestigious New Zealand art collection will be published in early April.See the artworks discussed in the episode:Peter Paul Rubens, Portrait of Katherine Villiers, Duchess of Buckingham and her family  Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641), Charles I and Henrietta Maria with their two eldest children, Prince Charles and Princess Mary, April-August 1632, Royal Collection TrustVilliers tomb at Westminster

In this episode host Ellie Woodacre interviews Noel Cox about his upcoming book: The Coronation and the Constitution: The political, legal and theological functions of the ceremony in the British tradition (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025). We discuss a range of topics including what makes British coronations distinctively different, the political, legal and theological functions of a coronation, and what changes we might expect in future ceremonies. If you enjoyed this episode or are interested in coronations, see also our previous episodes on British coronations featuring Alice Hunt and Jose Manuel Cerda. GUEST BIO: Noel Cox was Professor of Law, Department of Law and Criminology, Aberystwyth University (UK) and previously taught in New Zealand. His main fields of research interest are constitutional law, and law and religion. He has been a Visiting Fellow at the University of Cambridge (Wolfson College) and The Australian National University. He previously taught at the Auckland University of Technology, where he was head of the department of law. He is a barrister of the Inner Temple (UK) and admitted to practice law in New Zealand. Since 2015 he has been a priest in the Anglican Church in New Zealand but continues to write. He has published several hundred scientific works. Principal books include "Technology and Legal Systems" (2006); "Constitutional Paradigms and the Stability of States" (2012); "The Royal Prerogative and Constitutional Law" (2020); and "Priest of the Church or priest of a church: the ecclesiology of ordained local ministry" (2021).   

In this episode host Susannah Lyon-Whaley interviews Emily Chambers about her research on the lives, relationship and networks of the women of the Tudor court. They discuss several important female figures including regnant queen Mary I, Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox, Frances Brandon, mother of Lady Jane Grey, and many more who were all born c. 1510 and were peers in the volatile mid-Tudor court.Guest Bio:Emily Chambers is an Associate Lecturer in Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia. She has recently completed her PhD at the University of Nottingham, UK, on the influence of personal connections on the agency of eight elite aristocratic and royal women in mid-Tudor England.Reading suggestion:Jeri L. McIntosh, From Heads of Household to Heads of State: The Preaccession Households of Mary and Elizabeth Tudor, 1516–1558 (Columbia University Press, 2008). Ebook available: http://www.gutenberg-e.org/mcintosh/ 

In this episode, Johanna Strong speaks with Dr Alexander Courtney about his research on James VI of Scotland and I of England, focusing on his recent monograph James VI, Britannic Prince: King of Scots and Elizabeth's Heir, 1566–1603.Alex's forthcoming works include an edited collection, co-edited with Michael Questier, on James VI and I: Kingship, Government and Religion, coming in March 2025. In addition to his own works, Alex recommends Steven J. Reid's The Early Life of James VI: A Long Apprenticeship, 1566–1585 for more details on James VI/I's early life.

In this roundtable episode, hosted by Victoria Barlow, Nicole Maceira Cumming and Charlie Spragg discuss their research and the upcoming 'Understanding James VI&I 400 Years On' conference. We delve into the importance of how this shrewd monarch presented himself and his royal dominion not only as king of Scotland, but later of England as well. Having co-organised a conference taking place in July to commemorate the 400th anniversary of his death in 1625, our two guests also touch upon what goes into planning such an event.@KingJamesConf on XGuest Bios:Nicole Maceira Cumming is currently a Teaching Fellow in early modern history at the University of Edinburgh and an RA on the A Very Quiet Street project (University of Glasgow/Woodlands Community Development Trust). She recently completed her AHRC-funded PhD thesis, which examined the role of hunting in the Scottish court of James VI, c.1579-1603. Her previous roles have included a 2022 research placement with the National Trust and University of Oxford, exploring the history of ‘Horse Power' within National Trust properties. She has forthcoming publications on ‘Animals, dominion and the natural order in Post-Reformation Scotland' (Scottish Church History, 2023 prize winner) and ‘Reconstructing the menagerie of James VI, c.1579-1603' (Scottish Archives), and is co-organising the ‘Understanding James VI&I 400 Years On' conference which will take place in July 2025 to mark the quatercentenary of his death.@nicolemaceira.bsky.socialCharlie Spragg is a third-year doctoral student in History of Art at the University of Edinburgh, holding a full scholarship from the Edinburgh College of Art. Charlie's principal research interest is the self-fashioning of King James [VI & I of Scotland and England], particularly through visual and material display. She has been working independently as a historical researcher, most recently for Historic Environment Scotland on the new guidebook for Stirling Castle. Charlie will be a contributor in the forthcoming British Art Studies journal special issue, ‘Reframing King James VI and I'. Charlie is also co-organising the 'Understanding James VI&I 400 Years On' conference. @cvspragg on X@cvspragg.bsky.social

In this episode, Dr Johanna Strong speaks with Dr Jade Scott about Jade's new book, Captive Queen: The Decrypted History of Mary, Queen of Scots (Michael O'Mara Books, 2024). They explore why Mary's letters are so critically important for understanding her influence, agency and power even during her lengthy captivity in England. Dr Jade Scott is an affiliate in Scottish History at the University of Glasgow. She is an expert in early modern women's correspondence and has published widely on the letters of Mary, Queen of Scots. Her research focuses on women's agency as expressed through the language, rhetorical and materiality of their correspondence. Her new trade book Captive Queen re-tells the story of Mary, Queen of Scots' years in captivity in England, using the hundreds of letters she wrote and those received by her to challenge gendered assumptions of her influence and power. 

In this episode, host Ellie Woodacre interviews Natalee Garrett about her new biography of Queen Charlotte (Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, consort of George III of Britain). We discuss Charlotte's enhanced visibility in popular culture thanks to Bridgerton, her role and reputation as a mother, and the challenges of being a queen consort. GUEST BIO:Natalee Garrett received a PhD in History from the University of St Andrews in 2021 for a thesis on satirical prints of the monarchy and nobility in eighteenth-century France and Britain.  She began teaching at the Open University in 2021 and is currently a Lecturer in Early Modern History. Her research explores popular political culture, visual culture, and concepts of identity, including social class and gender. Her first monograph, a biography of Queen Charlotte, was published by Routledge in December 2024. Find out more about Natalee's research:Follow Natalee on Bluesky: @nemgarrett.bsky.socialNatalee's Open University staff page  Natalee's linktree with links to other projects and publications 

In this episode, we are celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Royal Studies Journal. Host Saira Baker interviews Ellie Woodacre, in her capacity as Editor-in-Chief of the RSJ to discuss the development of the journal and how this links to the overall growth of the field of royal studies. Saira and Ellie also discuss new developments for 2025, including the relaunch of the Royal Studies blog, which is now a forum for the reseach and activity of the postgraduate students and early career scholars in the field.Key Links:Royal Studies Journal (check out the 10th anniversary issue here)Royal Studies Blog  (publication date: 13th January 2025)2025 RSJ Article Prize for PGR/ECRs (Deadline 15 March 2025)Guest Bio: Dr Elena (Ellie) Woodacre is a Reader in Renaissance History at the University of Winchester. She is a specialist in queenship and royal studies and has published extensively in this area including her recent monographs, Queens and Queenship (ARC, 2021) and Joan of Navarre: Infanta, Duchess, Queen, Witch? (Routledge, 2022). Elena is the organizer of the ‘Kings & Queens' conference series, founder of the Royal Studies Network, Editor-in-Chief of the Royal Studies Journal, the editor of two book series with Routledge and ARC Humanities Press and a general editor of the Winchester University Press. Dr Woodacre regularly engages with international media on current events connected with monarchical history and featured in the documentary series Queens that Changed the World.Twitter: @monarchyconfBluesky: @ewoodacre.bsky.social Instagram/Threads: @royalstudiesscholar 

In this episode, Dr Amy Saunders and Dr Johanna Strong join Susannah to speak about their Royal Studies Journal Cluster, “Queenship and Cross-Confessional Identity”. The Cluster features in the December issue of the Royal Studies Journal and is available open-access through the RSJ website. Guest Bios:Amy has recently completed a PhD in early modern history and heritage at the University of Winchester, supervised by Dr Ellie Woodacre and Dr Simon Sandall. Her research examines the representation of Stuart royal narratives in modern heritage sites, exploring the reconstructed narratives of James VI & I, Anna of Denmark, Charles I, Henrietta Maria, Charles II, and Catherine of Braganza. Confessional and national identity are central themes in Amy's research and are relevant in both her work on the seventeenth century and the modern heritage sites she examines. Her forthcoming book chapter, “Curating a Conduit: Elizabeth Stuart, Motherhood and National Identity in Heritage Sites”, explores how James and Anna's daughter Elizabeth has been repositioned as the ideal ‘English' royal woman in modern heritage sites in England. Johanna completed her PhD at the University of Winchester under the supervision of Drs Ellie Woodacre and Simon Sandall. Her thesis focused on how narratives of religion, national identity, and gender influenced the creation and perpetuation of Mary I's legacy in the dominant English historical narrative from 1558 until 1660. Her research has been featured on a variety of podcasts and informed Winchester Cathedral's 3-part series on Mary I and Philip II's wedding at the Cathedral. Her first published chapter appeared in Valerie Schutte and Jessica S. Hower's award-winning volume Writing Mary I: History, Historiography, and Fiction and her first monograph is forthcoming. Johanna is the Digital Seminar Series Coordinator for the Royal Studies Network and is the Social Media Coordinator for all things RSN. You can follow Johanna and her research on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, and her website. 

In this episode, host Ellie Woodacre interviews Alban Schmid and Alison J. Miller to discuss queenship in East Asia. We discuss K-Dramas and real life palace intrigues in Choson Korea and the role of Japan's empresses in the visual propaganda of the Meiji Restoration period. Both authors reflect on to what extent we can apply the idea of queenship to monarchies in East Asia and royal women who they think deserve more attention or reconsideration.Guest Bios:Alison J Miller, Associate Professor of Art History and Director of Asian Studies at the University of the South (Sewanee), is a specialist in modern and contemporary Japanese art history, focusing on two-dimensional media, gender, and the imperial family. She has published in the Journal of Japanese Studies, TransAsia Photography Review, Asian Diasporic Visual Cultures and the Americas (ADVA), and various public humanities projects and museum catalogues. She is co-editor and contributing author for The Visual Culture of Meiji Japan: Negotiating the Transition to Modernity (Routledge, 2021) and Transposed Memory: Visual Sites of National Recollection in 20th and 21st Century East Asia (Brill, 2024). Her book, Envisioning the Empress: The Lives and Images of Japanese Imperial Women, 1868-1952 (Routledge, 2025) analyzes the social impact of the images of the modern Japanese empresses. She received her PhD from the University of Kansas and has taught at Bowdoin College and the Kansas City Art Institute, and her work has been funded by a Fulbright Fellowship, Foreign Language Area Studies Fellowship, Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Fellowship, Appalachian College Association Faculty Fellowship, and Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship, among others. Personal website: https://www.alisonjmiller.com/Alban Schmid studied politics and international relations at Sciences Po Paris and Peking University before focussing his attention on political history of East Asia during his graduate studies at the University of Oxford. He currently works at his alma mater in France. His new book The Institutional Power of Chosŏn Korea's Queen Dowagers, was recently published in ARC Humanities Press' Gender and Power in the Premodern World series. 

In this episode, host Ellie Woodacre interviews three guests on their recently released works on medieval queens in Routledge's Lives of Royal Women series. We talk to Matt Firth, Gabby Storey and Caroline Wilhelmsson about the development of queenship in the early and high Middle Ages, the key elements of the exercise of the queen's office, how these women were styled (or styled themselves) with titles and which queens have been often overlooked but deserve much more attention.Guest Bios:Matt Firth is an Associate Lecturer of medieval history and literature at Flinders University and a 2025 Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow. His research primarily focuses on historiography, cultural memory, and the transmission of historical narrative across time and place. His most recent article, revising the transmission history Alfred the Great's sobriquet has just been published in The English Historical Review. His first monograph, Early English Queens 850–1000: Potestas Reginae, released earlier this year, examines the history and evolving legacies of England's tenth-century queens. Gabrielle (Gabby) Storey is a historian of monarchy, gender, and sexuality. She has published widely in both popular and academic print on medieval monarchy, rulership, and representations of queenship and power in modern media. Her first book, Berengaria of Navarre, queen of England, Lord of Le Mans, was published by Routledge in 2024. She is currently working on her second book which will be for the general public. Gabby is the founder of Team Queens, an online global queenship resource, and her most recent publication is an edited collection with Zita Eva Rohr on Premodern ruling sexualities, published MUP in 2024.  Caroline Wilhelmsson is an early career historian of state formation and national identity in medieval Sweden. She studies the legal, political, and religious frameworks which led to the emergence of Sweden as a concept. Her first monograph, a group biography of Sweden's earliest recorded queens, sheds light on the inner workings of the nascent Swedish "state" at a time when the monarchy was still ill-defined, and the Church was weak. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at University College Cork where she is mapping medieval Irish walled towns. 

In this episode, host Ellie Woodacre interviews Stephanie McCarter about her new book Women in Power: Classical Myths and Stories from the Amazons to Cleopatra (Penguin Books, 2024). As we discuss in the episode, this work brings together excerpts from Classical texts which discuss the life and rule of a variety of women, from mythical figures like the Amazons, to a range of ruling queens including well known figures like Zenobia, Boudicca and Cleopatra to those who aren't often discussed, like Salome Alexandra or Amanirenas. Guest Bio:Stephanie McCarter is professor of Classics at the University of the South in Sewanee, where she has taught since 2008. Her teaching and research interests include Latin poetry, translation theory and practice, gender and sexuality in classical antiquity, feminist reception of the classics, and Greek and Roman philosophy and ethics. McCarter's books include Horace between Freedom and Slavery (University of Wisconsin Press, 2015) as well as two works of translation, Horace's Epodes, Odes, and Carmen Saeculare (University of Oklahoma Press, 2020) and Ovid's Metamorphoses (Penguin Classics, 2022), which won the 2023 Harold Morton Landon Translation Award from the Academy of American Poets. She has penned numerous academic articles in journals such as Classical Journal, Eugesta, and American Journal of Philology, as well as essays, translations, reviews, and interviews in The Washington Post, The Sewanee Review, Literary Hub, Electric Literature, Lapham's Quarterly, Hyperallergic, The Brooklyn Rail, and elsewhere. 

In this roundtable episode, host Ellie Woodacre is joined by a panel of five experts on monarchy in premodern Asia--including the Indian subcontinent, China and Southeast Asia. This episode captures a vibrant discussion on the impact of Buddhism on the ideals and practice of monarchy in the region, drawing on their respective research.Speaker Bios: Stephanie Balkwill is Associate Professor of Chinese Buddhism at the University of California Los Angeles, where she is also the Director of the Center for Buddhist Studies. She publishes broadly on the connection between women, Buddhist affiliation, and political opportunity in early medieval China. She is the author of The Women Who Ruled China: Buddhism, Multiculturalism, and Governance in the Sixth Century (UC Press 2024) as well as the co-Editor of Buddhist Statecraft in East Asia (Brill 2022)--both are Open Access.Megan Bryson is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Chair of the Asian Studies program at the University of Tennessee. Her work focuses on gender, ethnicity, and kingship in East Asian Buddhism, specifically in the regimes of Nanzhao (653–903) and Dali (937–1253) that were based in what is now China's Yunnan province. Bryson is the author of the book Goddess on the Frontier: Religion, Ethnicity, and Gender in Southwest China (Stanford UP, 2016), co-editor of the volume Buddhist Masculinities (Columbia UP, 2023), and she is currently finishing a book about Buddhist transmission along the Southwestern Silk Road.Alice Collett: Prior to joining St Andrews, Professor Collett worked at several universities around the world, in teaching, research and senior management roles, including a period as Acting Dean at Nalanda University in India. Her research specialism is ancient Indian religions, with a focus on women. Her publications include Women in Early Indian Buddhism: Comparative Textual Studies (OUP, 2013) and Translating Buddhism: Historical and Contextual Perspectives (SUNY, 2021).  Bruno Shirley is a historian of medieval Sri Lanka, interested in ideas about and practices of religion, politics, and gender. He is currently a research fellow in Buddhist Studies at Heidelberg University. Trent Walker is assistant professor of Southeast Asian studies and Thai Professor of Theravada Buddhism at the University of Michigan. Prior to moving to Ann Arbor, he completed postdoctoral fellowships at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand and the Ho Center for Buddhist Studies at Stanford University. A specialist in Southeast Asian Buddhist music, literature, and manuscripts, he is the author of Until Nirvana's Time: Buddhist Songs from Cambodia (winner of the 2024 Khyentse Foundation Prize for Outstanding Translation) and co-editor of Out of the Shadows of Angkor: Cambodian Poetry, Prose, and Performance through the Ages. 

In this episode, Ellie Woodacre interviews three members of the organizing committee for next year's Kings & Queens 14 conference: Manuela Santos Silva, Maria Dávila and Inês Olaia. We talk about the conference theme, plans for the conference (including the much loved excursions), celebrating the anniversary of Leonor de Lencastre's death and tips for those who are planning to attend. The call for papers for Kings & Queens 14 “Beyond the King: Diplomacy, Social Roles and Family Dynamics of Monarchies” is out now--the deadline for submissions is 15 December and the conference will take place from 2-5 June 2025 at the University of Lisbon. The full call for papers and more information can be found on the Royal Studies Network website.Errata: please note that the Call for Papers for Kings and Queens 14 is due on 15 December 2024, not 2014.Guest Bios:Manuela Santos Silva is an Associate Professor at the History Department of the School of Arts and Humanities of the University of Lisbon, at present supervisor of the Specialize Program in Gender and History. As a Researcher of the Centre for History of the University of Lisbon, she coordinates the research group “Court Studies and Diplomacy”.Within her various fields of interest and research, queenship has been one of the most productive, as she has co-edited several books and collections with colleagues and authored books and a substantial number of articles in collective volumes and scientific journals.She is a researcher in some international projects such as “MUNARQAS: La reginalidad ibérica desde hacia la Europa Atlántica Economías territoriales, escenarios curiales y geografías relacionales (ss. XII-XV)"”, "(REGINET) REDES DE PODER Y AUTORIDAD DE LAS REINAS E INFANTAS EN LAS MONARQUÍAS IBÉRICAS (1350-1500)", “Examining the Resources & Revenues of Royal Women in Premodern Europe”, and in a Portuguese project about Latin urban legislation.Maria Dávila is an Assistant Professor at the University of Lisbon and a researcher at its Centre for History. Her main research interests include Court Studies, especially the relationship of women and power, during the late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period, and the beginning of the Portuguese expansion. She is a member of several international research projects, including Munarqas coordinated by Diana Pelaz, "Examining the Resources & Revenues of Royal Wemen in Premodern Europe”, and the “Poder Feminino e Mecenato” project coordinated by Ana Maria Rodrigues and Murielle Gaude Ferragu. She has published several papers about elite women in the 15th century and is currently working on a new book about women at the Portuguese court, with Pedro Urbano. Inês Olaia is a PhD candidate in Medieval History at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Lisbon. She's working on a thesis titled “By the Grace of God Queen of Portugal: queens' functions and practices in Medieval Portugal”, for which she was granted a Scholarship (04440.2020.BD) from Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia. She holds a MA in Medieval History, with a dissertation studying the jurisdictions of Alenquer and Aldeia Galega da Merceana [alternatively: two medieval adjacent towns near Lisbon] and the queens' rule over these towns. She has published several articles in scholarly publications, including a study on emotions and political change in Portuguese chronicles in 2020, an inquest into Filipa of Coimbra, sister of queen Isabel, wife of Afonso V, in 2022, a study on the rule of queens Teresa and Sancha over a few towns in Portugal and a work on the itineraries of the queens from the time of Manuel I in 2023. Inês has also worked in the history of emotions and published a dozen sources. She's a team member of several projects, including the eReginae Project (devoted to ed

In this episode, Magdalena Biniaś-Szkopek and Darius von Güttner join host Susannah Lyon-Whaley to discuss their Polish Queens project, which examines Polish queens' roles as spouses, mothers, and queens. The project is also interested in looking into the emotional side of queenship and the emotions of the individual women themselves. Guest Bios:Magdalena Biniaś-Szkopek, Ph.D., Professor at UAM, Department of Archivistics, Faculty of History, Director of the Polish Academy of Sciences Kornik Library. Her areas of research interest include the history of late medieval Poland, Poland of the Jagiellonians, church and secular chancelleries in the Middle Ages and modern times, changes in the institution of marriage in Poland as well as in Europe in the fifteenth century, archival science with a particular focus on issues related to diplomacy, the development of chancery forms in history. She is the author of three monographs including Spouses before the court of the bishop of Poznań in the first quarter of the 15th century, Institute of History of the Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań 2019 (Małżonkowie przed sądem biskupiego oficjała poznańskiego w pierwszej ćwierci XV wieku, Wydawnictwo Instytutu Historii UAM, Poznań 2019). She is the author of more than 30 studies and scientific articles. She is currently the grant manager of the project "Polish queens of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries as wives and mothers” (2022 - 2026). Darius von Güttner is a historian of East Central Europe with a particular interest in cultural aspects of transmission of ideas and identity; Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Society of Arts; General Editor of series “East Central Europe” published by Brepols Publishers. Professor von Güttner completed his PhD at the University of Melbourne and now serves as the Dean of the Australian Catholic University's Canberra Campus. His book, Poland, Holy War, and the Piast Monarchy, challenges long-held beliefs about Poland's involvement in religious conflicts, specifically the Crusades. Beyond medieval and early modern Europe, his research has broadened to tackle global history and the societal roles of elite women, such as Bona Sforza, Queen of Poland and her mother Isabella d'Aragona. He is also a regular contributor to ABC Radio Canberra's weekly history segment.Find out more about the Polish Queens project and stay tuned for their forthcoming volume with Brepols. You can find out more about Darius's research interests here. 

In this episode, host Ellie Woodacre interviews Dr Mishka Sinha, co-curator of the Untold Lives: A Palace at Work exhibition at Historic Royal Palaces (running until 27 October 2024). In the interview we discuss how the development of the exhibition. the ways it which it reveals the hidden histories of palace courtiers and servants and the unexpected modern twist which brings the past and present inhabitants of the palace together.Episode Notes:Polly Putnam is co-curator of the exhibitionClarification--during the discussion of fires at Kensington Palace it should be noted that the palace nearly burnt down three timesGuest Bio: Mishka is a cultural and intellectual historian of global and imperial history from the eighteenth to the twentieth century. Her interdisciplinary research interests include the histories of universities, knowledge, texts, oriental languages, cultural and material heritage, women's history, and underrepresented people and cultures in Europe, the United States and Asia. Mishka received her B.A. degree from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai, an M.Phil from the University of Oxford, and a PhD from the University of Cambridge. She has taught at several UK and continental European universities and received several research grants and fellowships including a British Academy PDF at Cambridge, a Max Weber Fellowship in Florence, and others at Edinburgh, Oxford and Berlin. Mishka has worked with museums and heritage in India, and collaborated as an actor and performer with a contemporary Indian artist on multiple projects since 2003. Blog Posts written by Dr SinhaHRP: The tale of Abdullah and 'the Shah Goest'HRP: Searching for the young Black man in the portrait of William III, with Camilla de KoningPart I Part IISt. John's College, Oxford

In this episode, host Ellie Woodacre interviews Charlotte Boland, the curator of the Six Lives exhibition currently running at the National Portrait Gallery, London. In this interview we discuss the inspiration behind the exhibition, new approaches to the history of the Six Lives and the unusual and diverse selection of visual and material culture in the exhibition.The exhibition is running until 8 September 2024--click here for more information or to book tickets.If you are not in the UK or are listening to this episode after the exhibition has finished you can purchase the exhibition catalogue, which includes all of the material exhibited and features a range of articles from academics in the field on the Six Lives.Guest Bio: Dr Charlotte Bolland is a Senior Curator at the National Portrait Gallery—she joined in 2011 as Project Curator for the Making Art in Tudor Britain project. Her role combines responsibility for the acquisition, research and interpretation of portraits dating from the sixteenth century, with co-ordination of research activity within the curatorial department. She has co-curated a number of exhibitions at the NPG, including The Real Tudors: Kings and Queens Rediscovered (2014) and The Encounter: Drawings from Leonardo to Rembrandt (2017). Charlotte studied for her PhD at Queen Mary, University of London, in collaboration with The Royal Collection as part of an AHRC funded CDA—her doctoral thesis was entitled Italian Material Culture at the Tudor Court. It explored the many items that were owned by the Tudor monarchs that had been brought to England by Italian individuals, either through trade or as gifts. Selected Publications:C. Bolland and T. Cooper, The Encounter: Drawings from Leonardo to Rembrandt (National Portrait Gallery, 2017) C. Bolland and T. Cooper, The Real Tudors: Kings and Queens Rediscovered (National Portrait Gallery, 2014)

CONTENT WARNING: Please be aware that there are brief discussions of infant and child mortality in this episode.In this episode Susannah Lyon-Whaley interviews Alexandra Forsyth on her fascinating research on the dauphines of late medieval France. Guest Bio: Alexandra is a doctoral candidate in History at the University of Auckland. Her doctoral thesis examines the fertility, maternity, and childlessness of the ten Valois dauphines from 1350-1559. She is particularly interested in how the dauphines may have sought to enhance their fertility through the use of magical-medicinal and religious remedies. Alexandra holds a Master of Arts and BA (Hons) in History, both with First Class Honours. Alexandra is currently working as an Editorial Advisor for the Powers 1100-1550 section of Routledge Resources Online: Medieval Studies and has two forthcoming encyclopaedic entries on this platform, namely, Margaret of Scotland (1424-1445); Salic Law and French Royal Succession.Alexandra's recommended readings:Translated primary source: The Trotula: An English Translation of the Medieval Compendium of Women's Medicine. Translated and edited by Monica H. Green. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002. Book on the Conditions of Women was discussed. Susan Broomhall. The Identities of Catherine de' Medici. Leiden: Brill, 2021. Jennifer Evans. Aphrodisiacs, Fertility, and Medicine in Early Modern England. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2014.  Kristen L. Geaman. Anne of Bohemia. Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2022. Kristen L. Geaman, "Anne of Bohemia and Her Struggle to Conceive, Social History of Medicine." Social History of Medicine 29, 2 (2016): 224-244.  Daphna Oren-Magidor. Infertility in Early Modern England. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. Regina Toepfer. Infertility in Medieval and Early Modern Europe Premodern Views on Childlessness. Translated by Kate Sotejeff-Wilson. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2022.  

To celebrate the release of the Royal Studies Journal special issue 'Defining Aristocracy' (issue 11.1: June 2024), we have two roundtable episodes with the guest editor, Cathleen Sarti, and her contributors--one in English and another in German: a first for our podcast! This episode is the German version, hosted by Erik Liebscher and featuring Cathleen Sarti, Nadir Weber and Marion Dotter. You can find out more about all of the participants in this episode in the guest bios below.Cathleen Sarti: Cathleen Sarti is Departmental Lecturer for History of War at the University of Oxford. She holds a Phd from the University of Mainz which has been published as Deposing Monarchs: Domestic Conflict and State Formation, 1500-1700 with Routledge in 2022. She often works with Charlotte Backerra from the University of Göttingen on Monarchy & Money: the research seminar, several publications, and a book series with AUP.  The research is connected to Examining the Resources and Revenues of Royal Women in Premodern Europe. Cathleen is currently working a book on War Materials in European Warfare from the Baltic and the Economic Agency of Danish Queens.Marion Dotter: Marion Dotter is a research assistant at the Collegium Carolinum in Munich, Germany. From 2018 to 2021, she wrote her dissertation on Noble Politics in the late Habsburg Monarchy as part of the research project The Desk of the Emperor. Her research interest in Habsburg administrative practice led to the publication of the anthology "Allerunterthänigst unterfertigte Bitte. Bittschriften und Petitionen im langen 19. Jahrhundert". She is currently working on a study on the relationship between the Catholic Church and Communism in East-Central and South-East Europe in the Second Half of the 20th century.Nadir Weber: Nadir Weber is Professor of Early Modern Swiss History at the University of Bern and is currently leading the SNF Eccellenza project Republican Secrets: Silence, Memory, and Collective Rule in the Early Modern Period. He completed his PhD in Bern on the Principality of Neuchâtel and its political relations with Prussia. He then explored the history of hunting and human-animal relations, particularly at court, in various publications including a recent article on the concept of aristocracy in the political language of the early modern period.   Erik Liebscher: Erik Liebscher's work focusses on personal testimonies, the lower nobility, societies and sociability in the 18th century. He holds a PhD from the University of Erfurt (2024) which analyzed diaries of the Gotha court nobility around 1800. Since May 2024, he has been a research assistant at the Chair of Early Modern History at the University of Leipzig.

To celebrate the release of the Royal Studies Journal special issue 'Defining Aristocracy' (issue 11.1: June 2024), we have two roundtable episodes with the guest editor, Cathleen Sarti, and her contributors--one in English and another in German: a first for our podcast!This episode (in English) is hosted by Ellie Woodacre and features Cathleen Sarti and two contributors, Alexander Isacsson and Nicola Clark. In this roundtable we discuss the "fuzzy" definition of aristocracy, Alexander's article on the perception of the aristocracy in Swedish historiography and Nikki's ideas of "hard" and "soft" aristocracy in her study of women at the Tudor court. To find out more about our guest, see their bios below.Guest bios:Cathleen Sarti: Cathleen Sarti is Departmental Lecturer for History of War at the University of Oxford. She holds a Phd from the University of Mainz which has been published as Deposing Monarchs: Domestic Conflict and State Formation, 1500-1700 with Routledge in 2022--see our episode on her book here. She often works together with Charlotte Backerra from the University of Göttingen, in particular on all things regarding Monarchy & Money – there is a research seminar, several publications, and of course the book series with AUP.  The research is also connected to the wider project from within the RSN on Examining the Resources and Revenues of Royal Women in Premodern Europe. Cathleen is currently working a book on War Materials in European Warfare from the Baltic (introduced in a blog), and will then turn to the question of Economic Agency of Danish Queens. Dr Nicola Clark is a Senior Lecturer in early modern history at the University of Chichester. Her first book, Gender, Family, and Politics: The Howard Women, 1485-1558 was published by Oxford University Press in 2018, and she has issued widely on women's roles, the Reformation, and sixteenth century politics. She also writes for public audiences, and her latest book The Waiting Game: The Untold Story of the Women Who Served the Tudor Queens was published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in 2024.Alexander Isacsson is a researcher in history at Lund University, Sweden. He obtained his doctorate in 2023 after having published his dissertation Defining Dukeship: The Problem of Royal Spares and Dynasty Formation in Sweden, 1556–1622. He is currently working within a project financed by the Swedish Research Council and headed by Liesbeth Geevers at Lund University. The project, entitled New Princes: Duke Johan of Östergötland (1589-1618) and Archduke Charles of Austria (1590-1624), explores how the role of second sons changed in European monarchies in the seventeenth century from a comparative perspective. Besides royal studies and dynastic history, Alexander is also interested in historiography and media history.

In this episode, host Ellie Woodacre interviews the winner of the Royal Studies Journal Book Prize 2024--Matthew Fitzpatrick. In the interview, we discuss his prize winning book The Kaiser and the Colonies: Monarchy in the Age of Empire (Oxford University Press, 2022), including the inspiration behind the project, the character of Kaiser Wilhelm II and his relationships (good, bad and ugly!) with other global monarchs.Guest Bio: Matt Fitzpatrick is a Future Fellow and Matthew Flinders Professor of International History at Flinders University. His research is in the field of modern European history, in particular German imperial history. He is the author of three books on this topic, The Kaiser and the Colonies being his most recent. A fourth book, on the history of German Samoa, is due for publication in late 2024 / early 2025. He lives and works on Kaurna country, which is in South Australia.  Links/Further information:Matt Fitzpatrick--institutional webpageProject Webpage: Monarchy, Democracy and Empire in GermanyFollow Matt on BlueskyFollow Matt on X: @kilderbenhauser

This episode is an interview with Nadia van Pelt about her new book, Intercultural Explorations and the Court of Henry VIII which came out with OUP in December 2023. In this episode Dr Ellie Woodacre asks the author about the inspiration behind the book, the role of the fool at the Tudor court and about an exciting document that Nadia discovered which sheds new light on Henry's marriage to Anne of Cleves.Guest Bio: Nadia van Pelt is a lecturer at Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands. She holds a PhD from the University of Southampton, and published her first book with Routledge in 2019. Her research sits on the intersection between literary and cultural history, with a focus on drama, performance, and ritual.Publications: ·       Drama in Medieval and Early Modern Europe: Playmakers and Their Strategies (Routledge, 2019)·       Challenging the ‘Ugliness' of Anne of Cleves, History Today, April 2024·       Speaking of Kings and Popes under the Shadow of Henry VIII's Treason Act: Bale's King Johan, RSJ 8.1(2021)·       Katherine of Aragon's Deathbed: Why Chapuys Brought a Fool, Early Theatre 24.1 (2021)·       Royal epistolary courtship in Latin? Arthur Tudor's “love letter” to Katherine of Aragon at the Archivo General de Simancas and Francesco Negri's Ars Epistolandi, Renaissance Studies 38.2 (2024)·       John Blanke's Wages: No Business Like Show Business, Medieval English Theatre 44 (2023): https://doi.org/10.1017/9781805430438.002 [JSTOR or Cambridge Core]·      Teens and Tudors: The Pedagogy of Royal Studies, RSJ 1.1 (2014)·      Enter Queen: Metatheatricality and the Monarch on/off Stage, The Image and Perception of Monarchy in Medieval and Early Modern Europe (2014)

This episode, hosted by Dr Ellie Woodacre, features another roundtable with members of the Henry on Tour project team--we discuss the progresses of Henry VIII and the big themes of the project including kingship & queenship, logistics, legacy and performance.About the project: This exciting three-year venture brings together a cross-disciplinary team of scholars and technical specialists from both the academic and heritage sectors to explore, evaluate and reconceptualise Henry VIII's progresses. Led by Historic Royal Palaces in collaboration with the Universities of York and Newcastle, the main research focus will be on the logistics of Henry's journeys around his realm and their performance as a spectacle, their significance in demonstrating kingship and queenship, and their legacy for the study and interpretation of the Tudors in schools and at heritage sites. The project will map Henry VIII's complete itinerary for the first time and the associated landscapes, the routes taken, the venues visited and the palaces, country houses and ecclesiastical institutions that accommodated the royal household. Henry VIII on Tour will thus be presenting new stories, posing and answering innovative research questions, and hopefully inspiring greater curiosity about local places and heritage sites. As well as contributing to our understanding of Henry VIII, his wives and court and the relationship with his people in historical terms, the project will be reflecting on what monarchy and visibility means to us in the 21st century.Check out their upcoming project events HERE.Guest Bios:Anthony Musson Project lead / Theme lead: logisticsHistoric Royal PalacesProfessor Anthony Musson joined Historic Royal Palaces in 2018 to lead and foster a distinctive vision for the charity's research into historic palaces, diverse communities, landscapes and collections. He is editor with JPD Cooper of Royal Journeys in Early Modern Europe (Routledge, 2022).Kate Giles Theme lead: legacyUniversity of YorkKate is a building historian and archaeologist with a particular interest in the study of late medieval and early modern communal and public buildings. As Co-Director of the Centre for the Study of Christianity & Culture, Kate works with national, regional and local organisations to find creative ways of sustaining and sharing their heritage with others.Kirsty Wright Post-Doctoral Research AssistantHistoric Royal PalacesMy research focuses on early modern architecture, politics and government. I completed my PhD at the University of York on the Exchequer of Receipt in the Palace of Westminster, which explored the relationship between institutional development and the architecture of the palace. Toby WardEnsemble Pro VictoriaFounded at Cambridge in 2015, EPV is a pioneer in combining high-level performance with the latest research. Under their director Toby Ward, EPV won joint-first prize at the London International Festival of Early Music Young Ensemble Competition (2020).  Their Gramophone award-nominated debut recording, Robert Fayrfax: Music for Tudor Kings and Queens, was released by Delphian in 2021. Their second album, Tudor Music Afterlives (Delphian, 2022) includes new polyphonic reconstructions. 

In this episode we feature a project which aims to collect all known images of queens and royal women, called “Reines en images”. Host Ellie Woodacre interviews the project's creator, Matthieu Mensch, discussing the genesis of the project, plans for future expansion and the relevance to images of royal women today. If you are interested in getting involved with the project, Matthieu would love to hear from you, see his contact details below to get in touch.Guest information:Matthieu's webpage at the University of StrasbourgSocial Media:Instagram @matthieu.menschTwitter/X  @MatthieuMenschBio: Matthieu Mensch obtained his PhD in History from the University of Strasbourg, under joint supervision with the University Federico II of Naples. He worked on the construction and use of images of the Duchesses of Angoulême and Berry from their lifetime to our contemporary reappropriations. He is currently a research associate at the ARCHE Laboratory in the Faculty of Historical Sciences at the University of Strasbourg. His research focuses on queenship and representations, and his first book on the female entourage of Louis XVIII (Les Femmes de Louis XVIII) will be published in September 2024 with Perrin. He is also preparing a book on Marie-Thérèse Charlotte de France, to be published by Routledge in its Lives of Royal Women series.

This episode features e-Reginae, an exciting project in the field of queenship studies, based at the University of Lisbon. This roundtable includes three members of the project team: project leader Professor Ana Maria S.A Rodrigues, Inês Olaia and Pedro de Sousa. We'll be discussing the project aims, the inspiration behind e-Reginae and their plans for the future--certainly a project with real potential for fellow researchers in queenship and royal studies!Find out more about the project on their website and by following them on social media!The project website: http://ereginae.wordpress.com Instagram - @e.reginae Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ereginaeproject Twitter/X - @eReginaeProject Guest information:Ana Maria S. A. Rodrigues (MA, Sorbonne Université, 1981; PhD University of Minho, 1992; Habilitation, University of Minho, 2002) is Associate Professor at the University of Lisbon and a researcher at its Centre for History. Her research focuses on Portuguese medieval queenship, from the queens' estates and revenue to jurisdictional and political powers to religious and artistic patronage. Her most recent publications are “Splendour in life, humility in death: Queen Leonor de Lencastre (1458-1525) and the women around her”, Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies, 16-1 (2024); Dynastic Change: Legitimacy and Gender in Medieval and Early Modern Monarchy, Ana Maria S. A. Rodrigues, Manuela Santos Silva and Jonathan Spangler eds. (Routledge, 2020); “The Queen Consort in Castile and Portugal. María de Aragon (b. 1403-d. 1445), Queen of Castile and Leonor de Aragon (b. 1405/1408-d. 1445), Queen of Portugal”, in J. Roe and J. Andrews eds., Representing Women's Political Identity in the Early Modern Iberian World (Routledge, 2020).Inês Olaia is a PhD candidate in Medieval History at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Lisbon with a scholarship from Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia. Her thesis is titled “By the Grace of God Queen of Portugal: queens' functions and practices in Medieval Portugal”. She holds a MA in Medieval History, with a dissertation on the queens' rule of the towns of Alenquer and Aldeia Galega da Merceana. Her publications include a study of an inquest into Filipa of Coimbra, sister of queen Isabel in 2022, a study on the rule of queens Teresa and Sancha over several towns in Portugal and a work on the itineraries of the queens of Manuel I in 2023. Pedro de Sousa is a 3rd-year student of the History degree at the School of Arts and Humanities of the University of Lisbon (FLUL) and the Grant Holder of the eReginae project. His responsibilities consisted of searching and locating the documents issued by the medieval queens of Portugal, as well as their paleographical transcription and uploading to the EGPA (Escritório Galego-Português Antigo) platform.  Pedro is also one of the founders and directors of the History Students Union at FLUL.

In this episode, Susannah Lyon-Whaley is joined by Susan Taylor-Leduc to discuss her latest book and ongoing research on Marie Antoinette and gardens. Susan's 2022 book on Marie Antoinette - Marie Antoinette's Legacy: The Politics of French Garden Patronage and Picturesque Design, 1775-1867 - is available from Amsterdam University Press here.More information on Susan and her research is available on her website.  Susan's reading recommendations:●       Griffey, Erin. ‘“The Rose and Lily Queen”: Henrietta Maria's Fair Face and the Power of Beauty at the Stuart Court.' Renaissance Studies 35, no. 5 (2021): 811–836.●       Hyde, Elizabeth. Cultivated Power: Flowers, Culture, and Politics in the Reign of Louis XIV. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005.●       Lyon-Whaley, Susannah, ed. Floral Culture and the Tudor and Stuart Courts. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2024.

In this episode, Ellie Woodacre interviews Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones on his new book The Cleopatras. The Forgotten Queens of Egypt, published by Wildfire/Basic Books in May 2024. We discuss the need for this book which looks at all seven of the Cleopatras who were dynamic and fascinating co-rulers of Ptolemaic Egypt. We also discuss the particular dynamics of Ptolemaic rulership and the ways in which it brought together elements of Macedonian and Egyptian ideas of rule. In addition, we talk about how these women were 'goddess queens' who were worshipped both in their own time and after their death and how they used this quasi-divine status to enhance their power.Guest Bio: Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones is Professor in Ancient History at Cardiff University. His research concentrates, in the main, on the Persian empire, the ancient Near East, and the Hellenistic world. He also works on gender and reception history. Lloyd has published extensively, often with a focus on monarchy and court society. Recent books include King and Court in Ancient Persia (Edinburgh University Press, 2013), The Hellenistic Court (Classical Press of Wales, 2016), Persians: the Age of the Great Kings (Wildfire/Basic Books, 2022), Kleopatra Thea and Kleopatra III. Sister-Queens in the High-Hellenistic Period (Routledge, 2022), and Ancient Persia and the Book of Esther: Achaemenid Court Culture in the Hebrew Bible (I.B. Tauris, 2023). 

In this episode on Egyptian kingship we are speaking to Dr Caleb R. Hamilton (Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga, Kāi Tahu). Caleb is the Pouārahi, Principal Advisor Environmental Outcomes for Houkura, the Independent Māori Statutory Board. He was previously an Aporei Mātai (Principal Anaylst) at Te Puni Kōkiri and was Pou Matua Taonga Tuku Iho (Principal Advisor, Heritage) at the Department of Conservation.Caleb currently holds an Research Associate position with Waipapa Taumata Rau, the University of Auckland. He earned his PhD in archaeology and Egyptology from Monash University and his MA, BA Hons and LLB from Waipapa Taumata Rau, the University of Auckland. He has published on the Early Dynastic period, early Egyptian kingship, and the Western Desert and will soon produce new work on mummified human remains in Aotearoa as well as finalising his PhD into a manuscript for publication.Find out more about Caleb and his research at his academia.edu page.

In this episode, we have a roundtable with the lead editor and three contributors to the new collection, Notions of Privacy at Early Modern European Courts: Reassessing the Public and Private Divide, 1400-1800 (AUP, 2024). We discuss whether the term 'privacy' is problematic in terms of early modern court life and what expectations monarchs themselves might have had of privacy. If you enjoyed this episode, follow the link above--the book is freely available in Open Access thanks to the Centre for Privacy Studies at the University of Copenhagen.Guest Bios:Dustin M. Neighbors is the project coordinator and a postdoctoral researcher for the EU-Horizon project, Colour4CRAFTS,  at the University of Helsinki. His main areas of research are monarchy and court culture, with an emphasis on the performativity of gender, political and material culture, cultural practices and history (i.e., hunting) within sixteenth- and seventeenth century Northern Europe, and the employment of digital research methods.Dries Raeymaekers is Assistant Professor of Early Modern History at Radboud University (Nijmegen, the Netherlands). He specializes in the political culture of the early modern period, with particular attention for the history of monarchy, dynastic history, and the history of the court in Western Europe. He has published widely on princely favourites, ladies-in-waiting, and the 'politics of access' at early modern courts, including One Foot in the Palace: the Habsburg Court of Brussels and the Politics of Access in the Reign of Albert and Isabella, 1598-1621 (Leuven UP, 2013),  A Constellation of Courts: The Households of Habsburg Europe, 1555-1665 (Leuven UP, 2014) and The Key to Power? The Culture of Access in Princely Courts, 1450-1750 (Brill, 2016). Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger is Professor Emerita of Early Modern History at the University of Muenster. Since 2018, she has been Rector of the Berlin Institute for Advanced Study. Her main areas of research include: the political culture of the Holy Roman Empire; social and political symbols, metaphors, rituals, and procedures of the early modern period; and the history of ideas.Oskar J. Rojewski is an assistant professor at the University of Silesia and was a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Privacy Studies of the University of Copenhagen and the University Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid. He studies fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Flemish art and European court rituals, particularly the status of artists, their migration, networks, and relationships with sovereigns.

This episode features a new book series 'Monarchy, History and Culture' at AUP. The series seeks to publish studies on monarchy, both individual and comparative, from the ancient world to the French Revolution. In this episode, we interview two of the series editors to discuss what kind of work they are hoping to feature and tips for authors who would like to publish their work in the new series.Guest Bios:Erika Gaffney is an acquisitions editor for the AUP. She is also the Founder of the Art Herstory project, to recover the lives and works of historic women artists. Follow Erika on Twitter,  Facebook, LinkedIn, Bluesky and/or Academia.edu.Aidan Norrie is Lecturer in History and Literature and the Programme Leader of the BA (Hons) English and History Studies degree at the University Campus North Lincolnshire. They are the Managing Editor of The London Journal, the author of Elizabeth I and the Old Testament: Biblical Analogies and Providential Rule (2023), and the co-editor of the English Consorts collection (2022) and Women on the Edge in Early Modern Europe (2019).

Today's episode celebrates the publication of Floral Culture and the Tudor and Stuart Courts, ed. Susannah Lyon-Whaley (Amsterdam University Press, 2024).These interdisciplinary essays engage with flowers as real, artificial, and represented objects across the Tudor and Stuart courts in gardens, literature, painting, interior furnishing, garments, and as jewels, medicine, and food. If the rose operated as a particularly English lingua franca of royal power across two dynasties, this volume sheds light on an array of wild and garden flowers to offer an immersive picture of how the Tudor and Stuart courts lived and functioned, styled and displayed themselves through flowers.  Speaker Biographies:Eleri Lynn is a fashion and textiles historian and curator. She is the author of several monographs including Tudor Fashion (Yale University Press, 2017, winner of the Historians of British Art Prize), and Tudor Textiles (Yale University Press, 2020). Eleri is the curator of several major exhibitions including The Lost Dress of Elizabeth I (Hampton Court Palace, 2019).Maria Hayward is professor of early modern history at the University of Southampton. She works on material culture at the Tudor and Stuart courts. Her books include Rich Apparel: Clothing and the Law in Henry VIII's England (2009), and Stuart Style: Monarchy, Dress and the Scottish Male Elite (2021). Beverly Lemire is Professor and Henry Marshall Tory Chair, University of Alberta, Canada and a Member of the Order of Canada. She publishes widely on the gendered and racialised history of fashion, global trade, and material culture (c. 1600–1840) from British, European, colonial, and comparative perspectives. She is co-editor with Christopher Breward and Giorgio Riello of the two-volume Cambridge Global History of Fashion (2023):Susan M. Cogan is an Associate Professor of History at Utah State University. Her research focuses on social, religious, and environmental history of late-medieval and early modern England. Her publications include Catholic Social Networks in Early Modern England: Kinship, Gender, and Coexistence (Amsterdam, 2021) and articles on gardens, architecture, antiquarianism, and gender. A Floral Recipe to Try at Home: ‘A Second Course Dish in the Beginning of the Spring' aka a floral recipe for ‘dough balls' or ‘doughnuts' from William Rabisha, The Whole Body of Cookery (London: 1661), 205.Take of Primrose-leaves two handfuls, and boyl them, and scruise the water from them, and mince them small, three Pippins, season it with Cinamon, put to it half a handful of dry floure, and the yolks of eight eggs, only two whites of the same, mingle this together, adding a little Sugar, Cream, and Rose-water, your stuff must be thick that it run not abroad, your pan being hot with clarified Butter, drop them in by less then spoonfuls, and fry them on both sides as crisp as you can, dish them, and scrape on Sugar.

In this episode, hosted by Susannah Lyon-Whaley, we have a roundtable highlighting recent research on royal mistresses and the important part they played in the French and English monarchies. Guest Biographies:Tracy Adams is a professor in European Languages and Literatures at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. She has also taught at the University of Maryland, the University of Miami, and the University of Lyon III. She was a Eurias Senior Fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies 2011-2012, an Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in the History of Emotions Distinguished International Visiting Fellow in 2014 and a fellow at the Herzog August Bibliothek fellowship in Wolfenbüttel, Germany, in 2016. She is the author of Violent Passions: Managing Love in the Old French Verse Romance (2005), The Life and Afterlife of Isabeau of Bavaria (2010), Christine de Pizan and the Fight for France (2014), Agnès Sorel and the French Monarchy (2022), and Reflections on Extracting Elite Women's Stories from Medieval and Early Modern French Narrative Sources (2023). With Christine Adams, she co-authored The Creation of the French Royal Mistress from Agnès Sorel to Madame Du Barry (2020). With Charles-Louis Morand-Métivier, she is co-editor of the volume The Waxing of the Middle Ages (2023).  Christine Adams is professor of European history at St. Mary's College of Maryland. She publishes primarily in French gender and family history (17th–19th centuries). Author of A Taste for Comfort and Status: A Bourgeois Family in Eighteenth-Century France (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000) and Poverty, Charity, and Motherhood: Maternal Society in Nineteenth-Century France (University of Illinois Press, 2010), her most recent book, with Tracy Adams, is The Creation of the French Royal Mistress: From Agnès Sorel to Madame Du Barry (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2020). Adams was a 2020–2021 fellow with the American Council of Learned Societies and a spring 2021 Andrew W. Mellon long-term fellow at the Newberry Library, where she worked on her current book project on The Merveilleuses and their Impact on the French Social Imaginary, 1794–1799 and Beyond. She also writes frequently on current events, including politics, education, gender, and reproductive rights.Mirabelle is a PhD student in Art History at the University of Auckland. Her doctoral thesis focuses on the visual representation of Maria Fitzherbert (1756-1837), through the lenses of celebrity culture, erotic capital, and female reputation. Maria was the mistress, and illegal wife, of King George IV of England (1762-1830). Mirabelle completed her Master of Arts with First Class Honours in Art History in 2021. Her thesis examined the relationship between portraiture, gender, and sexuality at the Restoration Court, focusing on two of the royal mistresses of Charles II (1630-1685), Louise de Kéroualle (1649-1734) and Barbara Villiers (1640-1709). In 2019 she received her BA(Hons) with First Class Honours in Art History. Upon completion of her Bachelor of Arts degree, double majoring in Art History and Classical Studies, she was awarded the Louise Perkins Prize as the top graduating student in Art History. Further reading: Tracy Adams. Agnès Sorel and the French Monarchy: History, Gallantry, and National Identity. ARC Humanities Press, 2022. https://www.arc-humanities.org/9781641893527/agnes-sorel-and-the-french-monarchy/  Tracy Adams and Christine Adams. The Creation of the French Royal Mistress: From Agnès Sorel to Madame Du Barry. Penn State University Press, 2020.

We are back with Part 2 of our feature on 'Young Queens', featuring Dr Nicola Tallis and her new book, Young Elizabeth! In this interview we discuss how important it is to examine Elizabeth's childhood in order to understand the great queen that she became. As a point of connection with the interview with Leah Chang on her Young Queens book, we discuss some of those same challenges that young royal women faced and new ways to approach well-known queens like Elizabeth I.Guest Bio:Nicola graduated from Bath Spa University with a first class BA Hons. degree in History in 2011, and from Royal Holloway College, University of London in 2013 with an MA in Public History. She did her PhD at the University of Winchester--her thesis titled ‘All the Queen's Jewels, 1445-1548', examined the jewellery collections of the queens of the Wars of the Roses and the early Tudor queens, and the role of jewels during this period (see links below to the book she published based on her doctoral research).Nicola has had a varied career in the history and heritage sector working with Hampton Court Palace, the National Trust and as the curator at Sudeley Castle. Additionally, since 2013 she has been one of the resident historians for Alison Weir Tours. Nicola has written for a number of history magazines, including BBC History Magazine, History Revealed and Explore. She's also made numerous television and radio appearances, including Frankie Boyle's Farewell to the Monarchy (Channel 4), Who Do You Think You Are? (BBC), The Gunpowder Plot (Channel 5), and The Vikings (Channel 5).Find out more about Nicola and her publications:Nicola's websiteCrown of Blood: Lady Jane GreyUncrowned Queen: Margaret BeaufortElizabeth's Rival: Lettice KnollysAll the Queen's JewelsYoung Elizabeth

We open 2024 with a two-part feature on Young Queens, featuring two new books which look at young royal women in 16th century Europe. Our first interview is with Leah Redmond Chang, author of Young Queens (Bloomsbury, 2023).  In this episode we talk about the three women featured in her book (Catherine de Medici, Elisabeth de Valois and Mary Queen of Scots), why it's important to look at 'young queens' and the particular challenges they faced as young women and royal brides.Guest Bio: Leah Redmond Chang is a former Associate Professor of French and Director of the French Literature Programme at George Washington University, and was most recently a Senior Research Associate at University College London.  She is the author of two previous books: Into Print: The Production of Female Authorship in Early Modern France and Portraits of the Queen Mother: Polemics, Panegyrics, Letters, winner of the Josephine Roberts Award from the International Society for the Study of Early Modern Women.  Find out more about Leah at her website.Keep your eyes out for Part 2 in our Young Queens feature, an interview with Nicola Tallis about her new book, Young Elizabeth, coming soon!

This episode features Dr James Taffe speaking with Dr Johanna Strong about his latest publication, Christmas with the Tudors, out now! They discuss the book more generally as well as Christmas traditions of the Twelve Days of Christmas, gifts, and the role of queens in celebrations.To buy Christmas with the Tudors, head to Amazon UK, Amazon USA, Amazon Australia, or Amazon Canada (to name but a few!).If you know of any other references to Tudor Christmas celebrations, James would love to hear from you! You can find him on Twitter here.

This episode, we are joined by Dr Valerie Schutte for a conversation about her forthcoming Royal Studies Journal Cluster, due for publication next month.Valerie Schutte has published widely on royal Tudor women, book dedications, and queenship. She has published two monographs: Mary I and the Art of Book Dedications: Royal Women, Power, and Persuasion (2015) and Princesses Mary and Elizabeth Tudor and the Gift Book Exchange (2021). She has also edited or co-edited seven volumes on Mary I, Shakespeare, and queenship. Her most recent edited collection - Mid-Tudor Queenship and Memory: The Making and Remaking of Lady Jane Grey and Mary I - was published in Palgrave Macmillan's Queenship and Power series in September 2023. Other recent publications include: "Defending the Faith: Johann Slotan and Queen Mary I" in the Journal of the Early Book Society and "Anne of Cleves: Bound for England" in Royal Journeys in Early Modern Europe: Progresses, Palaces and Panache, edited by Anthony Musson and J.P.D. Cooper. Valerie is currently editing two other volumes, one on Tudor monarchs and myths, and the other on Mary I and humanism. She is also writing a cultural biography of Anne of Cleves. Valerie also has a forthcoming essay on 500 years of reprints of Juan Luis Vives's Instruction of a Christian Woman, that will be published this winter in the Journal of the Early Book Society. For more on Dr Schutte's research, follow her on Instagram and at her website. The Winter 2023 RSJ Cluster (in issue 10.2 to be released in December 2023) contains the following articles:The Sexualization Of a “Noble and Vertuous Quene”: Elizabeth of York, 1466-1503: William B. Robison Questioning an Honest Queen: The Scrutiny Around Queen Catherine of Aragon's Virginity: Emma Luisa Cahill Marrón “This Dolorous Chance”: Contemporary Views on Catherine of Aragon's Pregnancy Losses: Caroline Armbruster Visualising Sexuality and Maternity in the Royal Entries of Mary Tudor (1514) and Anne Boleyn (1533): Charlotte Samways Sexuality and Grace, Grazia: What made Anne Boleyn so special?: Tracy Adams Bodies in Competition: Italian Descriptions of Sexuality, Fertility, and Beauty in the King's Great Matter: Samantha PerezDiplomatic Presentations of Queen Mary I's 1555 Pregnancy: Ailish Girling & Valerie Schutte 

Later Stuart Queens, 1660–1735: Religion, Political Culture, and Patronage (edited by Eilish Gregory and Michael Questier) is part of Palgrave Macmillan's Queenship and Power series and seeks to re-insert queens into the mainstream of Stuart and early Georgian studies. It will be published in December 2023. Today we are speaking with Dr. Eilish Gregory about the release of this volume. Eilish is the Little Company of Mary Fellow in the History of Catholicism at the Centre for Catholic Studies at Durham University. Her research mainly focuses on early modern religion, politics, and culture, particularly on Catholicism in early modern Britain. Her monograph Catholics during the English Revolution, 1642-1660 (Boydell) was published in 2021 and she has written articles and book chapters on Queen Catherine of Braganza.  Make sure you check out Eilish's article in Parliamentary History on Catherine of Braganza and the Popish Plot: Gregory, Eilish. ‘Catherine of Braganza during the Popish Plot and Exclusion Crisis: Anti‐Catholicism in the Houses of Commons and Lords, 1678–81.' Parliamentary History 42, no. 2 (2023): 195-212.

This podcast shines a spotlight on three items of dress in the V&A collections with a courtly or royal theme. Susan North, Curator of Fashion 1550-1800 at the Victoria & Albert Museum, speaks about their style, materials, where and when they would have been worn, and caring for them.In this podcast, we discuss: A resplendently embroidered mantua, 1740-1745,  A shimmering, spangled waistcoat, 1775-1780,  A floral court suit, 1790-1800Susan is the Curator of Fashion before 1800 at the Victoria and Albert Museum and contributor of a chapter on flowers in the dress and jewellery of men and women in the upcoming book Floral Culture and the Tudor and Stuart Courts, edited by Susannah Lyon-Whaley (Amsterdam University Press, forthcoming).  Her other publications include 18th-Century Fashion in Detail and  Sweet and clean?: Bodies and Clothes in Early Modern England (Oxford University Press, 2020).

Sarah A. Bendall is a material culture and gender historian at the Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, ACU. Her first book, Shaping Femininity, was published with Bloomsbury in 2021. It was shortlisted for the Society of Renaissance Studies (UK) biannual book prize in 2022 and awarded highly commended. She is co-investigator on the AHRC-funded Making Historical Dress Network with Dr Serena Dyer (De Montfort University) examining recreating dress. She's also examining the widespread use of whaling products in fashion between the years 1500-1800. Her second book, The Women Who Clothed the Stuart Queens, which she is talking about today, uncovers the lives and work of the women who made, sold, managed and cared for the clothing of the Stuart queens between the years 1603 and 1714. Check out her website: https://sarahabendall.com/, where you will find blog posts and tutorials that feature her research and experimental reconstructions!

Dr. Erin Griffey is a specialist in early modern visual and material culture at the University of Auckland and a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. She has published widely on court culture, especially the early seventeenth-century British queen Henrietta Maria and the Stuart court. She has written On Display: Henrietta Maria and the Materials of Magnificence (Yale University Press, 2015) and her forthcoming work includes chapters on beauty in the forthcoming Bloomsbury Cultural History of Beauty. She won the Renaissance Studies Article Prize for her article 'The Rose and Lily Queen: Henrietta Maria's Fair Face and the Power of Beauty at the Stuart Court' (2022). She is writing a book titled Facing Decay: Beauty, Wrinkles and Anti-Aging in Early Modern Europe, (Penn State University Press, forthcoming) and she is also collaborating with colleagues in Chemistry on the Beautiful Chemistry Project in recreating a selection of early modern cosmetic recipes in the lab.  Erin's work: You can find out more about Erin and her team's recreation of recipes at https://www.beautifulchemistryproject.com/ For her article on Henrietta Maria and beauty: Griffey, E. (2021). ‘“The Rose and Lily Queen”: Henrietta Maria's fair face and the power of beauty at the Stuart court.' Renaissance Studies, 35(5), 811-836.For a general introduction to beauty at court, see Griffey, E. (2022). ‘Beauty.' In Erin Griffey (ed.), Early Modern Court Culture. Routledge. Keep an eye out for Erin's forthcoming work on beauty: Griffey, E. (forthcoming). ‘Beautiful Experiments: Reading and Reconstructing Early Modern Cosmetic Recipes.' In Sara Bendall and Serena Dyer (eds.), Embodied Experiences of Making in Early Modern Europe: The Body, Gender and Material Culture. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. Griffey, E. (forthcoming). ‘Art and Beauty and ‘Ideas of Beauty'. In Sarah Toulalan (ed.), A Cultural History of Beauty. Bloomsbury. Griffey, E. (forthcoming). Facing Decay: Beauty, Wrinkles, and Anti-Aging in Early Modern Europe. Penn State University Press.  Also check out: Burke, Jill. (2023). How to be a Renaissance Woman: The Untold History of Beauty and Female Creativity. Profile Books.Forthcoming exhibitions on beauty: In Love with Laura: A Mystery in Marble, Kunsthistoriches Museum:https://www.tiqets.com/en/KHM-kunsthistorisches-museum-tickets-l141961/in-love-with-laura-a-mystery-in-marble-e46826/ The Cult of Beauty, The Wellcome Collection:https://wellcomecollection.org/exhibitions/ZJ1zCxAAACMAczPA

In this episode, we interview Professor Kathleen Wilson-Chevalier, the host of the upcoming Kings & Queens 13 conference in May 2024 at The American University of Paris. In this interview, Kathleen tells us all about the inspiration behind the theme "Gift-giving and Communication Networks". We also discuss the conference's commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the death of Queen Claude de France (1499-1524) and why this important but all too often sidelined queen deserves far greater attention. Find out more about the plans for Kings & Queens 13 on the conference webpage--the call for papers is currently open with a deadline of 31 October 2023. Nota bene from our guest:Louise de Savoie was mother of the king, never queen nor queen mother.Louis XII and Anne of Brittany supported Guillaume Briçonnet and Jacques Lefèvre d'Etaples in their reform of Saint-Germain-des-Prés in 1513.Claude's daughter Madeleine de France became queen of Scotland when she was sixteen and died there the year of her marriage (1537). Jacques Lefèvre d'Etaples wrote a Vocabulaire du Psaultier to teach Latin to Madeleine and her brother Charles, which he published in 1529.Claude's last child, Marguerite de France, became duchess of Savoy in 1559. Jean Héritier (Michel de l'Hôpital) credits Renée de France and her niece Marguerite de France with the erection of the tomb of the former chancellor at Champmotteux after his death in 1573.Professor Wilson-Chevalier's Work on Claude de France:“Claude de France and the Spaces of Agency of a Marginalized Queen”, in Women and Power at the French Court, 1483-1563. Ed. Susan Broomhall. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2018, pp. 139-172.“From Dissent to Heresy. Queen Claude of France and Her Entourage: Images of Religious Complaint and Evangelical Reform”, in Representing Heresy in Early Modern France. Ed. Lidia Radi and Gabriella Scarlatta Eschrich. Toronto: Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2017, pp. 93-129."Claude de France. La vertu de la littérature et l'imaginaire d'une princesse vertueuse”, Valeur des lettres à la Renaissance. Débats et reflécions sur la vertu de la littérature, Paris, Classiques Garnier, 2016, pp. 43-81. "Quelle “trinité royale” ? Reine, roi, régente et sœur de roi : Claude de France, François Ier, Louise de Savoie et Marguerite de Navarre", in La dame de cœur . Le patronage religieux des reines et des princesses XIIIe-XVIIe siècle. Ed. Murielle Gaude-Ferragu and Cécile Vincent-Cassy, Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2016, pp. 123-136“Claude de France: Justice, Power & the Queen as Advocate for Her People”, in Textual and Visual Representations of Power & Justice in Medieval France. Manuscripts and Early Printed Books. Ed. Rosalind Brown-Grant, Anne D. Hedeman, and Bernard Ribémont. Ashgate, 2015, pp. 241-272.“Claude de France:  In Her Mother's Likeness, A Queen with Symbolic Clout?”, in The Cultural and Political Legacy of Anne de Bretagne. Negotiating Convention in Books and Documents. Ed Cynthia Brown. Cambridge (U.K.): Boydell and Brewer, 2010, pp. 123-144.Edited books:Femmes à la cour de France Charges et fonctions (XVe-XIXe siècle). Ed. with Caroline zum Kolk. Villeneuve d'Ascq : Presses Universitaires du Septentrion, 2018.Patronnes et mécènes en France à la Renaissance. Ed., with the collaboration of Eugénie Pascal. Saint-Étienne : Publications de l'Université de Saint-Étienne (with the participation of The American University of Paris), 2007.Royaume de fémynie : Pouvoirs, contraintes, espaces de liberté des femmes, de la Renaissance à la Fronde. Ed. with Eliane Viennot. Paris : Honoré Champion, 1999.

This episode features an interview with Polly Putnam and Holly Marsden, two of the team responsible for Historic Royal Palaces' innovative 'Crown to Couture' exhibition which is running until 29 October 2023. To find out more about the exhibition, follow this link and most importantly, have a listen to this episode to hear more about the inspiration behind it and the similarities between the royal court and celebrities on the red carpet!Guest Bios:Polly Putnam is a collections curator at Historic Royal Palaces. She is responsible for the management, research, display and interpretation of collections and displays post 1650 at Hampton Court Palace. She has a particular responsibility for Kew Palace. She has been the curator for numerous projects including the Chocolate Kitchens at Hampton Court and the restoration of the Great Pagoda in Kew Gardens. At Kensington palace, she curated Victoria Woman and Crown which is explored Victoria's self-fashioning and the intersection of her public role and personal life. She is the lead curator for Crown to Couture. Prior to this she was assistant curator for Leeds Museums and Galleries where she led on numerous restoration projects, displays and exhibitions.Holly Marsden is currently completing her PhD through the AHRC's Collaborative Doctoral Partnership scheme at the University of Winchester and Historic Royal Palaces, having previously studied Queer History for her MA and History of Art for her undergraduate degree. Her thesis examines the multiple identities of Queen Mary II in the context of queenship, culture and politics in the seventeenth century.  As part of her PhD, Holly completed a curatorial student placement with Polly Putnam on 'Crown to Couture.' Previous placements also include working in the curatorial team of the Tudor to Regency galleries for the National Portrait Gallery's ‘Inspiring People' re-opening project and on Historic Royal Palace's ‘Queer Lives' immersive theatre tours. 

This very special episode features Diana Pelaz Flores, guest editor of the current Royal Studies Journal special issue 'The Iberian Queen's Households: Dynamics, Social Strategies and Royal Power' (Vol 10.1, June 2023). Diana is the 'host' of this episode, in conversation with Lledó Ruiz Domingo and Paula Del Val Vales, who both contributed articles to this issue. We are delighted to have this episode in Spanish--a first for the Royal Studies Podcast!Please note: We are aware that there are some minor issues with the audio which could not be completely addressed in the mastering of the episode. We apologise for the less than ideal audio but we hope you will still enjoy listening to this feature.Information about our guests:Diana Pelaz Flores is Senior Lecturer in the Medieval History at the University of Santiago de Compostela. She was the main researcher of the project “Court feminine spaces: Curial areas, territorial relations and political practices”, granted by the Spanish Government, integrated within the MUNARQAS coordinated project, under the direction by Angela Munoz Fernandez. Her research examined the history of women and power, in particular the Queens consort of the Crown of Castile during the Late Middle Ages. She has several publications, including Rituales Líquidos. El significado del agua en el ceremonial de la Corte de Castilla (ss. XIV-XV) (Murcia: Universidad de Murcia, 2017), La Casa de la Reina en la Corona de Castilla (1418-1496) (Valladolid: Universidad de Valladolid, 2017), Poder y representación de la reina en la Corona de Castilla (1418-1496) (Ávila: Junta de Castilla y León, 2017), and Reinas Consortes. Las reinas de Castilla en la Edad Media (siglos XI-XV) (Madrid: Sílex, 2017)).Dr. Lledó Ruiz Domingo is postdoctoral researcher of Late Medieval Iberian Queenship at the University of Lisbon (Portugal) and University of Valencia (Spain). Her wider interests focus on political activity of Aragonese consort as co-rulers and partners with their royal husbands, especially during their periods as Lieutenant, using all the King's powers and authority. She has also focused her analysis on the Queens' economic resources during the Late Middle Ages. In this sense, she has published a monography “El tresor de la Reina” about the patrimony, income and expenditure of the Aragonese Queens.Paula Del Val Vales is a third year PhD student and Associate Lecturer at the University of Lincoln, where she develops her thesis ‘The Queen's Household in the Thirteenth Century: A Comparative Anglo-Iberian Study'. Paula is a Postgraduate Fellow Abroad as her PhD is funded by the La Caixa Foundation, and a member of the research group MUNARQAS. Paula has been on placement at the British Library, within the digitisation project 'Medieval and Renaissance Women', focused on digitising more than 300 documents related to medieval and renaissance women (1100-1600). Through her research she aims to explore the queens' establishments, resources, revenues, personnel and networks. She is also working on the first ever critical edition of the household and wardrobe accounts of Eleanor of Provence.

This episode features an interview with the winner of the Royal Studies Journal 2023 Postgraduate/Early Career Scholar Article Prize. In this interview we'll be discussing her prizewinning article and the disastrous Medici/Habsburg marriage that inspired it!Guest Bio: Adriana Concin is the Assistant Curator of Paintings and Drawings at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. She completed her doctoral studies at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London in 2021 with a dissertation focused on the 1565 wedding of Francesco I de' Medici and the Habsburg Archduchess Johanna of Austria and its wider cultural implications. She has been the recipient of several fellowships, including the Eva Schler fellowship at the Medici Archive Project in Florence and the Studia Rudolphina fellowship in Prague at the Institute of Art History of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Adriana has also held the Ayesha Bulchandani graduate internship at the Frick Collection in New York. Her research interests lie in sixteenth-century collecting, cultural exchanges between Tuscany and the Holy Roman Empire, and female patronage networks. In addition to her prize winning article, she has also published on the frescoes of Habsburg cityscapes in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence (Burlington Magazine, 2019).Find out more about Adriana and her research here: Adriana's website on Habsburg WomenAcademia.edu pageCodart profilePrize winning article: Sadly this article, published in Studia Rudolphina is not available digitally but you can follow this link to find out more about how to access it--in the 2020/21 issue.

In this episode, Rob Runacres (University of Winchester) speaks about aspects of his doctoral research on fencing and HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts) in early modern European courts and royal education.Rob's two translations from French primary sources are available from Fallen Rook Publishing (https://www.fallenrookpublishing.co.uk/). The Free Master of Arms (1653) can be found here and The Book of Lessons (mid 17th century) can be found here. The latter contains the 71 colour pictures from the manuscript in the Swedish Royal library. There are other authors on the same site. You can follow Rob's research via his Academia.edu page. AGEA reproduces a large number of Spanish fencing treatises, including those of Royal fencers, available online here.  Rob's latest article was published with Acta Periodica Duellatorum, an open-source HEMA periodical, and is on the Bolognese Tradition (Vol. 10 No. 1 (2022)) A general introduction to the topic can be found in "The Martial Arts of Renaissance Europe" by Sydney Anglo. For French readers, a comparable work is "Croiser le Fer" by Pascal Brioist, Hervé Drévillon and Perre Serna. Much research has moved on from these works, but they remain significant pieces. Rob recommends articles by Eric Burkart, Daniel Jaquet, Hélène Leblanc and Iason Tzouriadis and also recommends this huge wiki of fightbooks, with scans or links to scans of originals. Most of the background information is sound but, as per any wiki, relies on contributors. 

Join us for this episode featuring postgraduate research students Louise Gay and Ashlee Johnson, who speak to Dr Johanna Strong about their research into queens' roles in warfare, conflict, and military life in medieval Europe.Louise is a PhD student at the Université Sorbonne Paris Nord examining thirteenth- and fourteenth-century French and English queenship and warfare. Ashlee is a PhD student at the University of Winchester focusing on the 4 Matildas (1066-1152) and their charters.You can follow Louise and her research at her Twitter profile. You can also find Ashlee and her research on Twitter here.

In this episode we are joined by Nikki Clark and Caroline Dunn to speak about their work on the role of ladies-in-waiting in the medieval and early modern English court. We'll hear their reflections on how the role changed over time and what life was like for these women as well as their thoughts about Queen Camilla's decision to eliminate this position in favour of the new post of ‘companions'.  Dr Nicola Clark is a Senior Lecturer in Early Modern History at the University of Chichester. Her first book, Gender, Family, and Politics: The Howard Women, 1485-1558, was published by Oxford University Press in 2018, and she also writes for public audiences, with work featured in History Today and on the History Extra website. She has spoken about her research at events for Historic Royal Palaces, the National Archives, various schools, and academic institutions, and has recently appeared on television as part of the BBC's The Boleyns: A Scandalous Family, and More4's Royal Scandals. Before coming to Chichester, Nicola taught at the University of Winchester and Royal Holloway College, University of London. She has published widely on women's roles, queenship, the Reformation, and Tudor politics. Twitter: @NikkiClark86 Selected Publications:  Gender, Family, and Politics: The Howard Women, 1485-1558. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/gender-family-and-politics-9780198784814?cc=gb&lang=en&“Queen Katherine Howard: Space and Promiscuity Pre- and Post-Marriage, 1536-1541”, Royal Studies Journal 6.2 (2019), 89-103. https://rsj.winchester.ac.uk/articles/10.21039/rsj.202 Dr Caroline Dunn is a scholar of medieval Europe with a particular focus on women's roles and social networks in late medieval England. Her book, Stolen Women in Medieval England: Rape, Abduction, and Adultery c. 1100-1500 (Cambridge, 2012) offers the first comprehensive overview of women's experiences with ravishment, which ranged from forcible rape to consensual elopement and adultery, during the English Middle Ages. Professor Dunn's current research explores the lady-in-waiting in medieval England. Examining these highborn serving women reveals the nuances of soft power, social influence, and economic resources wielded by women who lacked official authority within political institutions or patriarchal households. Dr. Dunn teaches upper level courses on medieval women, crusades and conquests, aristocratic society, and preindustrial food at Clemson University. She received the Dean's award for teaching excellence in 2011 and the John B. and Thelma A. Gentry Award for teaching excellence in the Humanities in 2019. In 2016 Dr. Dunn co-organized the 5th annual Kings and Queens conference, introducing international scholars to Clemson University for the first time that the gathering was held outside of Europe. Dr Dunn was awarded the 2020 Bonnie Wheeler Fellowship to recognize and advance her scholarship.  Twitter: @SCmedievalist Selected Publications:“Serving Isabella of France, From Queen Consort to Dowager Queen.” In Elite and Royal Households in Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Edited by Theresa Earenfight. Leiden: Brill, 2018."All the Queen's Ladies: Philippa of Hainault's Female Attendants." Journal of Medieval Prosopography 31 (2016), 173-208.Royal Women and Dynastic Loyalty. Edited by Caroline Dunn and Elizabeth Carney. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018.