Elliot Jordan

Elliot Jordan
Postdoctoral Associate Member

Leave to Supplicate Granted: June 2025

DPhil Research Topic

Thesis: 'Martial Culture and Military Service in Spanish and English Armies, c.1511-1604'

Historical Field: 

I am interested in military thought, culture and practice in the Renaissance, and more broadly the development of war, state and society in the era of the Early Modern 'Military Revolution', an age of revolutionary military change and the development of professional soldiering. My research centres on the military writing and martial cultures of Spanish and English soldiers and officers in the sixteenth century, from the Conquest of America through the Italian Wars and Tudor campaigns through to the end of the first phase of the Eighty Years War in 1609. I completed an MA at St Andrews (2016-20) with my dissertation on the martial culture of the conquistadores, and an MPhil in Early Modern history at New College (2020-2) supervised by Professor David Parrott, studying Elizabethan military manuals and their attitudes to the Spanish tercio infantry regiments, and military professionalism as a whole. This was awarded the Best in Cohort prize for the Early Modern history strand 2021/2 and will form an important part of my doctoral thesis. Within the early modern perod, I have also worked on the Spanish conquest of America, and the 'power and glory' of early modern royal representation. I am a member of the Pike and Shot Society. More broadly, I am interested in the interplay of war, state, and society, and of military organisation and culture in Europe from the high middle ages to the present. I am also a member of the Siegfried Sassoon Fellowship. 

I was the graduate teaching assistant for Michaelmas term 2023 on the third year Special Subject 'The Thirty Years War'. 

Papers: 

  • New Directions in the History of War, Oxford-KCL-Sir Michael Howard Centre for the History of War (London), June 2024 
    • 'The Pike and the Printing Press: An introduction to Renaissance military writing', panelist for Panel 3: Military Theory Throughout History
  • Helion & Company, Pike and Shot Society and Society for Army Historical Research, 'Retinue to Regiment' Tudor Warfare Conference (Birmingham), September 2023
    • 'The Pikes of Essex: The Essex Trained Bands and Elizabethan National Defence' 
  • History of War Seminar DPhil Presentation Day (Oxford), March 2023 
    • 'Military Culture and Writing in Renaissance-Era Spanish and English Armies' 
  • Weapons in Society III, Royal Armouries (Leeds), January 2023
    • 'Weapons and Warfare in Elizabethan Military Handbooks', panelist for Panel Two: the Cultural Context of Arms and Armour 
  • Early Modern MSt Dissertation Workshop (Oxford), May 2022
    • 'English Military Theory, the Spanish Threat and the Military Revolution, c.1558-1604'
  • MPhil Concepts & Controversies Seminar (Oxford), January 2022
    • 'The Military Revolution: Concepts and Problems'  

Publications: 

  • Review, Colin Martin and Geoffrey Parker, Armada: The Spanish Enterprise and England's Deliverance in 1588 (2022), in International Journal of Maritime History, 2024. 
  • 'The German War Memorial in New College Chapel', in New College Notes, 17 (2022), No.8
  • 'The Man with the Wind at his Heels: On Wolf Hall' (review of Hilary Mantel's Cromwell trilogy), at The Pittsburgher, (https://www.thepgher.com/post/the-man-with-the-wind-at-his-heels-on-wolf...), 12th June 2021
  • 'The Historical Approach of Sir John Elliott', in The New Collection, 15 (2021) 
  • 'Agnadello: The Effect of Military Collapse on a Renaissance State', in St Andrews Historical Journal, Vol.IX, Issue 1 (Summer 2020), pp.29-43.  

Prizes: 

  • Best Dissertation in Cohort, Oxford Early Modern History MSt/MPhil (2022)
  • John Adamson Honey prize for Final Honours Medieval History (2020) 
  • Oglesby-Wellings Memorial Prize for First Year History (2017) 
  • St Andrews Deans list, 2019 and 2020 

 

 

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