Anna Whitelock (PhD, Cambridge)

Research Interests

My research interests lie broadly in sixteenth and seventeenth century political history and particularly issues relating to monarchy, religion, gender, court politics and political culture. I am especially interested in the informal relationships of trust, favour and fidelity which underpinned the formal structures and institutions of government and served as alternative channels of governance and counsel. An integral part of my research to date has been a consideration of the implications of gender and how such informality operated during a period of female monarchy.

I am a specialist in Marian politics and political culture. In May 2009, my biography of Mary Tudor was published by Bloomsbury. As fresh and exacting research focuses on Mary's reign, the gap between the scholarly Mary and that of popular perception grows ever wider. This book seeks to bridge the divide and constructs a new, popular narrative of the reign and an image of a queen less weak-willed, unintelligent and politically incompetent but well-educated, courageous and politically accomplished who ruled as England's first crowned queen regnant. I am currently completing a monograph called Faith, Favour and Fidelity: politics and policymaking in the household of Mary Tudor 1516-1558 which reconstructs the social networks surrounding Mary before and after her accession and re-examines the nature of court politics. I am also co-editing a collection of essays on Tudor Queenship.

My new research project focuses on fools and jester at European courts in the early modern period. Despite their inherent historical interest, such figures have been largely neglected in studies of early modern court politics and their political role not considered. This inter-disciplinary project will explore the political and cultural milieu of fools and folly within Renaissance Europe and to examine how and to what end fools were exchanged between European courts as ambassadors of folly.

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Classes Taught (subject to availability)

Undergraduate

HS1002 History and Meanings: Varities of History from Herodotus to Postmodernism and After

HS1008 Doing History

HS1108 The Rich Tapestry of Life. A Social and Cultural History of Europe c.1500-1780

HS2018 From Nation State to Multiple Monarchy: (1) English History, 1485-1588

HS2019 From Nation State to Multiple Monarchy: (2) British History, 1588-1649

HS2137 Tudor Queenship: Mary I and Elizabeth I 1553-1603

Links

Anna Whitelock's personal website