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Dr Louise Wilkinson

Senior Lecturer, Medieval History
Research Profile

My doctoral thesis explored the interaction of gender, life cycle and status in shaping women's experiences at different social levels in thirteenth-century Lincolnshire. This research formed the basis for my monograph, Women in thirteenth-century Lincolnshire, published in March 2007 by Boydell for the Royal Historical Society's Studies in History Series. My current research focuses on women, gender, childhood and family life in thirteenth-century England and Europe. I am a councillor of the Pipe Roll Society and a co-director of the AHRC-funded Henry III Fine Rolls Project at King's College London.

Latest Publication

The Rituals and Rhetoric of Queenship: Medieval to Early Modern, a collection of essays co-edited with Dr Liz Oakley-Brown, explores the ways in which, whether a consort or a ruler in her own right, the late medieval and early modern queen was a pivotal, and often controversial, figure. By examining the historical character of the queen as represented in letters, chronicles and documents of state, as well as her fashioning (and re-fashioning) in a range of literary works and visual media, this collection interrogates the role of the female monarch, primarily within the British Isles, both as a symbol of harmony and dynastic stability and as a potential focus for political factionalism, disunity and discontent.

Future Research

I am working on a biography of Eleanor, wife of Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester, and sister of King Henry III, for Continuum, which examines her career during the Barons' War (1258-1267) when her husband and brother were politically at loggerheads over the reform of the realm. A key source for this study, which I am translating with a view to publication by the Pipe Roll Society, is Eleanor's household roll for 1265. This remarkable document covers the disastrous months leading up to, and following on from, the deaths of her husband and eldest son at the Battle of Evesham in 1265.

Publications

Books:

  • Edited, A cultural history of childhood and family in the Middle Ages, 800-1400 (Oxford: Berg Publishers, forthcoming 2010) – in press
  • Edited, with Dr Liz Oakley-Brown, The rituals and rhetoric of queenship: medieval to early modern (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2009), 287 p.
  • Author, Women in thirteenth-century Lincolnshire (Woodbridge: Boydell for the Royal Historical Society, Studies in History, 2007), 272 p.

Edited Documents:

  • Calendar of patent rolls 32 Elizabeth I (1589-1590), C 66/1337-1361. Part 1 (Calendar); Part 2 (Indexes) (Kew: List & Index Society, 301-2, 2004), 2 vols (475 p.)
  • Calendar of patent rolls 29 Elizabeth I (1586-1587) C 66/1286-1303. Part 1 (Calendar); Part 2 (Indexes) (Kew: List & Index Society, 295-6, 2003), 2 vols (377 p.)
  • Calendar of patent rolls 27 Elizabeth I (1584-1585) C 66/1254-1270 (Kew: List & Index Society, 293, 2002), 308 p.
  • Calendar of patent rolls 25 Elizabeth I (1582-1583) C 66/1223-1236 (List & Index Society, 286, 2001), 282 p.

Chapters in Books:

  • 'The imperial marriage of Isabella of England, Henry III's sister', in The Rituals and Rhetoric of Queenship: Medieval to Early Modern, ed. L. J. Wilkinson and E. Oakley-Brown (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2009), pp. 20-36
  • 'Joan, wife of Llywelyn the Great', in Thirteenth Century England X, ed. M. Prestwich, R. H. Britnell and R. Frame (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2005), pp. 81-94
  • 'Women as sheriffs in early thirteenth century England', in English government in the thirteenth century, ed. A. Jobson (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2004), pp. 111-124
  • 'The rules of Robert Grosseteste reconsidered: the lady as estate and household manager in thirteenth-century England', in The medieval household in Christian Europe, c. 850-c. 1550: managing power, wealth, and the body, ed. C. Beattie, A. Maslakovic and S. Rees Jones (Turnhout: Brepols, 2003), pp. 294-306

Articles:

  • 'Completing the calendar of patent rolls, Elizabeth I', Local Historian (2005), pp. 30-43
  • 'Pawn and political player: observations on the life of a thirteenth-century countess', Historical Research, 73 (2000), pp. 105-123

Major Book Reviews:

  • Review of Marjorie Keniston McIntosh, Working women in English society, 1300-1620 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005) in Reviews in History (2006)

Recent Research Papers and Lectures (2000-present):

  • 'Eleanor de Montfort and the Barons' War', The First English Revolution?, The National Archives (2008); The Medieval Seminar, All Souls College, University of Oxford (2008)
  • 'Henry III's sister: Eleanor de Montfort', King Henry III (1207-72): A Simplex and God-Fearing King, King's College London (2007)
  • 'Henry III and his sisters: A case for collective queenship?', Canterbury Branch of the Historical Association, Canterbury Christ Church University (2007)
  • Joint organiser (with Dr Liz Oakley Brown) of 'The Ritual and Rhetoric of Queenship (1250-1650) Conference' at Canterbury Christ Church University on 24 to 25 August 2006, sponsored by The Royal Historical Society and The Society for Renaissance Studies
  • 'Armorial seals for ladies', The Heraldry Society Conference, Canterbury (2006)
  • 'Nicholaa de la Haye: a Lincolnshire woman at the time of Magna Carta', - A public lecture in the Wren Library of Lincoln Cathedral to launch Lincoln and Magna Carta Week (2006)
  • 'Countesses, nuns and family memory: the case of Stixwould Priory', The University of Kent (2006)
  • 'In search of young single women in twelfth- and thirteenth-century England', The International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds (2005)
  • 'In search of a better way of life: women, work and mobility in thirteenth-century Lincolnshire', The International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds (2004)
  • 'Joan, wife of Llywelyn the Great', Thirteenth-Century England Conference, University of Durham (2003), based on an earlier paper given to the European History Seminar, 1150-1550 at the Institute of Historical Research in 2002
  • 'Up close and personal: women's wills in England before the Black Death', The International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds (2003)
  • 'Non fuit in francoplegio quia mulier: gender boundaries and law enforcement in thirteenth-century England', The International Legal History Conference, University of Exeter (2003)
  • 'Women remembering and women remembered: gender and religious patronage in twelfth- and thirteenth-Century England', The Gender, Memory and Identity, 900-1300, Conference, University of Liverpool (2002), based on an earlier paper given to the Late Medieval Seminar, Institute of Historical Research in 2000
  • 'Women as sheriffs in early thirteenth-century England', The Birth of Red Tape: English Government in the Thirteenth Century Conference, The National Archives (2002)
  • 'The Rules of Robert Grosseteste reconsidered', The International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds (2001)

Sessions organised at the International Medieval Congress:

  • 'Life after death: widows, property and power in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries' (2003)
  • 'Living on the edge: outsiders in thirteenth-century England' (2004)
  • 'Age. life cycle and identity (900-1300): II. Life cycle and masculinity' (2005) – one of three themed sessions jointly organised with Dr Philadelphia Ricketts of the University of Liverpool
  • 'Politics, family and community in thirteenth-century England' (2006)
  • 'Ritual, rhetoric and gesture in chronicles and charters' (2006)