Steven Gunn | |
---|---|
Born | Steven John Gunn |
Nationality | British |
Occupation(s) | Historian and academic |
Title | Professor of Early Modern History |
Board member of | Royal Armouries |
Children | 2 |
Academic background | |
Education | Whitgift School |
Alma mater | Merton College, Oxford |
Thesis | The life and career of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, c. 1484-1545 (1986) |
Doctoral advisor | C. S. L. Davies |
Academic work | |
Discipline | History |
Sub-discipline | |
Institutions | Newcastle University Merton College, Oxford |
Doctoral students | Yuval Noah Harari |
Steven John Gunn FRHistS [1] is an English historian and fellow of Merton College, University of Oxford. He teaches and researches the history of late medieval and early modern Britain and Europe, and is the author of a number of academic texts.
Gunn was an undergraduate and doctoral student at Merton College, Oxford, matriculating in 1979. [2] Prior to this he attended the Whitgift School in South Croydon. [3] Gunn's doctoral thesis, a study of the life and career of Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, was supervised by C. S. L. Davies and completed in 1986. [4] Prior to being elected a Tutorial Fellow at his alma mater, Gunn held a research fellowship at Newcastle University. [5]
Gunn's research interests lie in the political, social, cultural and military history of England and its European neighbours, spanning the mid-fifteenth to the late sixteenth century. [6]
Gunn was awarded the Title of Distinction of Professor of Early Modern History by the University of Oxford in October 2015. [7]
Gunn delivered the 2015 James Ford Lectures in British History at the University of Oxford, taking as his subject 'The English people at war in the age of Henry VIII'. A book of the same title based on the lectures was published in 2018. [8]
Between 2018 and 2019 Gunn served as Acting Warden of Merton College in the period between the retirement of Martin J. Taylor and the arrival of his successor, Irene Tracey. [9] He had previously served as Sub-Warden from 2010 to 2012. [10]
In 2021 Gunn was appointed to the board of trustees of the Royal Armouries by Oliver Dowden, the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, serving a four-year term. [11]
Gunn has appeared as a panelist on two editions of the BBC Radio 4 programme In Our Time , discussing the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 2005 [12] and the Battle of Bosworth Field in 2012. [13] In 2008 he appeared on Great Lives discussing Henry VII with George Osborne. [14] In 2009 he appeared on an episode of the Radio 4 series The Hidden Henry discussing Henry VIII's intellectual development and scholarly ambitions with Andrea Clarke. [15] He has also contributed articles to the magazine History Today . [16]
Gunn is married to Jacquie, [17] and together they have two daughters. [18]
Henry VII, also known as Henry Tudor, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizure of the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death in 1509. He was the first monarch of the House of Tudor.
Thomas Wolsey was an English statesman and Catholic cardinal. When Henry VIII became King of England in 1509, Wolsey became the king's almoner. Wolsey's affairs prospered and by 1514 he had become the controlling figure in virtually all matters of state. He also held important ecclesiastical appointments. These included the Archbishop of York—the second most important role in the English church—and that of papal legate. His appointment as a cardinal by Pope Leo X in 1515 gave him precedence over all other English clergy.
Lady Margaret Beaufort was a major figure in the Wars of the Roses of the late fifteenth century, and mother of King Henry VII of England, the first Tudor monarch. She was also a second cousin of Kings Henry VI, Edward IV and Richard III of England.
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Merton College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 1260s when Walter de Merton, chancellor to Henry III and later to Edward I, first drew up statutes for an independent academic community and established endowments to support it. An important feature of de Merton's foundation was that this "college" was to be self-governing and the endowments were directly vested in the Warden and Fellows.
Arthur, Prince of Wales, was the eldest son of King Henry VII of England and Elizabeth of York, and an older brother to the future King Henry VIII. He was Duke of Cornwall from birth, and he was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester in 1489. As the heir apparent of his father, Arthur was viewed by contemporaries as the great hope of the newly established House of Tudor. His mother was the daughter of the Yorkist king, Edward IV, and his birth cemented the union between the House of Lancaster and the House of York.
Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk was an English military leader and courtier. Through his third wife, Mary Tudor, he was brother-in-law to King Henry VIII.
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Susan Michelle Doran FRHistS is a British historian whose primary studies surround the reign of Elizabeth I, in particular the theme of marriage and succession. She has published and edited sixteen books, notably Elizabeth I and Religion, 1558-1603, Monarchy and Matrimony and Queen Elizabeth I, the last part of the British Library's Historic Lives series.
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Elizabeth Anna Norton is a British historian specialising in the queens of England and the Tudor period. She obtained a Master of Arts in archaeology and anthropology from the University of Cambridge, being awarded a Double First Class degree, and a master's degree in European archaeology from the University of Oxford. She is the author of thirteen non-fiction books.
George Owen (1499–1558), from Oxford and Godstow, Oxfordshire, was an English royal physician and politician.
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Susan Elizabeth Brigden is a historian and academic specialising in the English Renaissance and Reformation. She was Reader in Early Modern History at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Lincoln College, before retiring at the end of 2016.
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Irene Mary Carmel Tracey is Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford and former Warden of Merton College, Oxford. She is also Professor of Anaesthetic Neuroscience in the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences and formerly Pro-Vice-Chancellor at the University of Oxford. She is a co-founder of the Oxford Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain (FMRIB), now the Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging. Her team’s research is focused on the neuroscience of pain, specifically pain perception and analgesia as well as how anaesthetics produce altered states of consciousness. Her team uses multidisciplinary approaches including neuroimaging.
Perpendicular Gothic architecture was the third and final style of English Gothic architecture developed in the Kingdom of England during the Late Middle Ages, typified by large windows, four-centred arches, straight vertical and horizontal lines in the tracery, and regular arch-topped rectangular panelling. Perpendicular was the prevailing style of Late Gothic architecture in England from the 14th century to the 17th century. Perpendicular was unique to the country: no equivalent arose in Continental Europe or elsewhere in the British-Irish Isles. Of all the Gothic architectural styles, Perpendicular was the first to experience a second wave of popularity from the 18th century on in Gothic Revival architecture.
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