University of Oxford History Faculty

Faculty Postholders

Dr John Watts

M.A., Ph.D., F.R.Hist.S.
Lecturer (CUF) in Modern History

Research Interests

John Watts is interested in politics and political structures in later medieval England and Europe, 13th - 15th centuries. Most of his published work deals with later medieval English politics and political culture, but he is currently writing a book about later medieval European politics.

Supervision Interests

Later medieval English politics, political ideas and political culture, c.1250-c.1500. I have supervised doctoral theses on Richard II and ideas of manhood, aristocratic parks in later medieval England, and I am currently working with someone looking at notions and practices of 'fellowship'.

Selected Publications:

Henry VI and the politics of kingship. (Cambridge, 1996)
(ed.) The End of the Middle Ages? England in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries . (Stroud, 1998)
'Looking for the State in Later Medieval England' in Heraldry, Pageantry and Social Display in Medieval England. (Woodbridge, 2002) pp. 243-67
'The Policie in Christen Remes: Bishop Russell's Parliamentary Sermons of 1483-84' in Authority and Consent in Tudor England. Essays presented to C.S.L. Davies. (Aldershot, 2002) pp. 33-59
'Was there a Lancastrian Court?' in The Lancastrian Court. (Stamford, 2003) pp. 253-71
'The Pressure of the Public on Later Medieval Politics' in The Fifteenth Century. IV. Political Culture in Late Medieval Britain. (Woodbridge, 2004) pp. 159-180
(ed.) Power and Identity in the Middle Ages: Essays in Memory of Rees Davies . (Oxford, 2007)
'Public or Plebs: the Changing Meaning of 'the Commons', 1381-1549' in Power and Identity in the Middle Ages. (Oxford, 2007) pp. 242-60
The Making of Polities: Europe, 1300-1500. (Cambridge, 2009)

Future Publications:

'The Changing Meaning of the Commons in the Long Fifteenth Century' in . (Paris, 2006)
'Political Structures and Political Life' in Short Oxford History of Europe: the Later Middle Ages. (Oxford, 2007)

Research Interests and Activities

Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages