Jonathan McGovern (historian)

Jonathan McGovern
Born	Derby, England
Education	University of Oxford University of York
Notable work	The Tudor Sheriff: A Study in Early Modern Administration (2022)

Jonathan McGovern FRHistS is an English historian and author. He specializes in the study of Tudor England and has been a proponent of the New Administrative History. ^{[1] [2]}

Education and career

McGovern was born in Derby and studied at Landau Forte College, then a City Technology College. ^[3] He read history and english at St Peter's College, University of Oxford, where he won the Smith Prize. ^[4] He holds a PhD in english from the University of York and has taught at Nanjing University, China. ^{[5] [6]} He is currently Professor of English at the College of Foreign Languages and Cultures, Xiamen University. ^[7]

Academic research

Historical perspective

He has defended traditionalist historical methods, arguing for the importance of empiricism in history "as a practical benchmark, not a philosophical position". ^[8]

Thomas Becket

In 2021, he published his discovery of the eighteenth-century origin of the phrase "Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest", which was formerly misattributed to King Henry II of England. ^[9] The phrase actually originated with Robert Dodsley.

Awards and honours

He is winner of the Sir John Neale Prize (2018), ^[10] the Gordon Forster Essay Prize (2018) ^[11] and the Parliamentary History Essay Prize (2019). ^[12] He was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2022 ^[13] and is a member of the Selden Society, a learned society dedicated to the study of English legal history. ^[14]

Publications

Books

• The Tudor Sheriff: A Study in Early Modern Administration. Oxford University Press (2022). ^{[6] [15] [16] [17] [18]}
• The Little History of England. The History Press (2024).
• The Early Parliaments of Henry VIII, 1510–1523. Boydell Press (2025).

Selected articles

• "Was Elizabethan England Really a Monarchical Republic?", Historical Research, vol. 92, no. 257 (2019), 515–28. doi.org/10.1111/1468-2281.12275.
• "The Development of the Privy Council Oath in Tudor England", Historical Research, vol. 93, no. 260 (2020), 273–85. doi.org/10.1093/hisres/htaa003.
• "Royal Counsel in Tudor England, 1485–1603", The Historical Journal, vol. 65, no. 5 (2022), 1442–69. doi.org/10.1017/S0018246X21000820.
• "The Practical Historical Approach: A Review of the Principles and Methods of Fact-First History", World History Studies, vol. 9, no. 2 (2022), 1‒14.

References

1. Wright, Kirsty (2023). "Revisiting the War in the Receipt, 1572–1609". Parliamentary History. 42 (1): 13. doi: 10.1111/1750-0206.12668 .
2. "Dr. Jonathan McGovern: The Tudor Sheriff and the New Administrative History". Law & History Review.
3. Dobson, Nick (Spring 2010). "Public Speaking and Debating" (PDF). Newslink.
4. McGovern, Jonathan (2022). The Tudor Sheriff: A Study in Early Modern Administration. Oxford University Press. p. vii.
5. "Author Bio (Jonathan McGovern), The History Press".
6. Kesselring, K. J. (2023). "Review of The Tudor Sheriff: A Study in Early Modern Administration, by Jonathan McGovern" . English Historical Review. 138 (592): 649. doi:10.1093/ehr/cead038.
7. ""Jonathan McGovern", Google Scholar".
8. McGovern, Jonathan (2022). "The Practical Historical Approach: A Review of the Principles and Methods of Fact-First History". World History Studies. 9 (2): 1–14.
9. Blackburn, Jack (March 24, 2023). "Protestants added the 'à' to smear Thomas Becket". The Times .
10. "Jon McGovern wins prestigious Sir John Neale Prize".
11. "Editorial" . Northern History. 56 (1–2): 1. 2019. doi:10.1080/0078172X.2019.1662684.
12. "John McGovern wins Parliamentary History Essay Prize".
13. "List of current Fellows" (PDF). May 2024.
14. "Selden Society: Report of the Council for the Year 2022" (PDF).
15. Flannigan, Laura (July 3, 2022). "JONATHAN MCGOVERN, The Tudor Sheriff: A Study in Early Modern Administration: (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022. £75.00. 320 pages. ISBN: 9780192848246)". Northern History. 59 (2): 311–313. doi:10.1080/0078172X.2022.2103064.
16. Cavill, Paul (July 2023). "Jonathan McGovern. The Tudor Sheriff: A Study in Early Modern Administration. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022. Pp. 315. $100.00 (cloth)". Journal of British Studies. 62 (3): 791–792. doi:10.1017/jbr.2023.101.
17. Lambe, Simon (May 4, 2023). "The Tudor Sheriff: A Study in Early Modern Administration: McGovern, Jonathan, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 297 pp., $100.00, ISBN 978-0-19-284824-6". History: Reviews of New Books. 51 (3): 51–52. doi:10.1080/03612759.2023.2214008.
18. Gibbs, Spike (December 2024). "Jonathan McGovern, The Tudor sheriff: A study in early modern administration (Oxford University Press, 2022). 320 pp. £75". Agricultural History Review. 72 (2): 307–308.