Academic career
Doran read History at St Anne's College, Oxford before obtaining a PGCE and beginning a teaching career at St Paul's Girls' School in Hammersmith. In the 1970s Doran completed a PhD at University College London, with her thesis being a political biography of Thomas Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Sussex. Beginning in 1986 she taught early modern British and European history at St Mary's University College in Strawberry Hill, serving as head of the History Department for several years. [2] When she left the college in 2001, she was Reader in History.
Doran returned to the University of Oxford as a lecturer at Christ Church in 2002. In 2004 she was elected a Fellow of St Benet's Hall, Oxford, and in 2009 was elected a Senior Research Fellow at Jesus College, Oxford. [3] In 2016 the university awarded her the title of Professor of Early Modern British History. [4] In 2018 Doran served as acting Master of St Benet's Hall while Werner Jeanrond was on sabbatical. [5]
Doran is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and an Honorary Fellow of the Historical Association. [6]
Broadcasting
Doran has appeared in many historical documentaries and podcasts as an expert commentator.
Doran has participated in numerous Tudor history documentaries produced by the BBC. In 2016 she appeared in an episode of A Timewatch Guide focused on Elizabeth I, presented by Vanessa Collingridge. [7] In 2020 she appeared in Royal History's Biggest Fibs, presented by Lucy Worsley, discussing the Spanish Armada and the relationship between Elizabeth I and Philip II of Spain. [8] She also appeared in 2021's The Boleyns: A Scandalous Family, discussing Henry VIII's marriage to Anne Boleyn. [9]
Other documentary appearances include the 2010 National Geographic film Secrets of the Virgin Queen [10] and an episode of the 2015 Yesterday series Medieval Murder Mysteries focused on the death of Amy Robsart. [11] In 2018 she acted as a historical consultant for an episode of Britain's Most Historic Towns , presented by Alice Roberts, exploring the city of Norwich in the Tudor period. [12]
In April 2024 Doran was the guest for the first ever live recording of Suzannah Lipscomb's podcast Not Just the Tudors at the Gloucester History Festival's spring weekend, where she discussed the succession of James I to the English throne. [13]
Elizabeth I was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last monarch of the House of Tudor.
The House of Tudor was an English and Welsh dynasty that held the throne of England from 1485 to 1603. They descended from the Tudors of Penmynydd, a Welsh noble family, and Catherine of Valois. The Tudor monarchs ruled the Kingdom of England and the Lordship of Ireland for 118 years with five monarchs: Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I. The Tudors succeeded the House of Plantagenet as rulers of the Kingdom of England, and were succeeded by the Scottish House of Stuart. The first Tudor monarch, Henry VII, descended through his mother from the House of Beaufort, a legitimised branch of the English royal House of Lancaster, a cadet house of the Plantagenets. The Tudor family rose to power and started the Tudor period in the wake of the Wars of the Roses (1455–1487), which left the main House of Lancaster extinct in the male line.
The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia was first used in 1572, and often thereafter, to mark the Elizabethan age as a renaissance that inspired national pride through classical ideals, international expansion, and naval triumph over Spain.
Philippa Gregory is an English historical novelist who has been publishing since 1987. The best known of her works is The Other Boleyn Girl (2001), which in 2002 won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award from the Romantic Novelists' Association and has been adapted into two films.
In England and Wales, the Tudor period occurred between 1485 and 1603, including the Elizabethan era during the reign of Elizabeth I (1558–1603). The Tudor period coincides with the dynasty of the House of Tudor in England, which began with the reign of Henry VII. Under the Tudor dynasty, art, architecture trade, exploration and commerce flourished. Historian John Guy (1988) argued that "England was economically healthier, more expansive, and more optimistic under the Tudors" than at any time since the Roman occupation.
John Alexander Guy is a British historian and biographer.
Thomas Wilson (1524–1581), Esquire, LL.D., was an English diplomat and judge who served as a privy councillor and Secretary of State (1577–81) to Queen Elizabeth I. He is remembered especially for his Logique (1551) and The Arte of Rhetorique (1553), which have been called "the first complete works on logic and rhetoric in English".
The Treaty of Hampton Court was signed on 22 September 1562 between Queen Elizabeth and Huguenot leader Louis I de Bourbon, prince de Condé. The treaty was concluded by François de Beauvais, Seigneur de Briquemault. Based on the terms of the accord, 3000 English troops were summoned to occupy Le Havre and Dieppe. Moreover, Queen Elizabeth promised to provide economic aid to the Huguenots. Once peace was restored in France, Elizabeth refused to withdraw her troops, stating that she had taken Le Havre not for religious reasons but to indemnify her for the loss of Calais, which was rightfully hers. The regent of France, Catherine de' Medici sent both Catholic and Huguenot troops against Le Havre, which surrendered on 28 July 1563. Feeling betrayed by the Huguenots, Elizabeth never trusted them again. This is evident when in 1572, Catherine de Medici ordered the killing of the Protestant Coligny. This resulted in 3000 Protestants being killed in what is known as the Massacre of St Bartholomew's Day. Elizabeth was urged to send support to the French Huguenots but refused.
Events from the 1530s in England.
The Virgin's Lover is a historical novel written by British author Philippa Gregory. It belongs to her series of Tudor novels, including The Constant Princess, The Other Boleyn Girl, The Boleyn Inheritance, and The Queen's Fool.
Anne, Lady Shelton née Boleyn was a sister of Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire, and one of the aunts of his daughter, Queen Anne Boleyn, the second wife of King Henry VIII.
Mary Scudamore was a courtier to Elizabeth I.
Sir John Shelton of Shelton in Norfolk, England, was a courtier to King Henry VIII. Through his marriage to Anne Boleyn, a sister and co-heiress of Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire of Blickling Hall in Norfolk, he became an uncle of Queen Anne Boleyn, the second wife of King Henry VIII. He was appointed comptroller of the joint household of Princesses Mary and Elizabeth, the King's daughters, and together with his wife was Governor to the King's children.
James Dugdale was an Oxford academic and administrator. He was Fellow and Master of University College, Oxford.
David Michael Loades was a British historian specialising in the Tudor era. He was Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Wales, where he taught from 1980 until 1996, and was Honorary Research Professor at the University of Sheffield from 1996 until 2008. In the 1960s and 1970s he taught at the universities of St. Andrews and Durham. From 1993 until 2004 he acted as Literary Director of the John Foxe Project at the British Academy; he subsequently became an Honorary Member of the History Faculty at the University of Oxford. After military service in the Royal Air Force 1953–1955, Loades studied at the University of Cambridge. He wrote many books on the Tudor period, including biographies. He was President of the Ecclesiastical History Society (1992–93).
The succession to the childless Elizabeth I was an open question from her accession in 1558 to her death in 1603, when the crown passed to James VI of Scotland. While the accession of James went smoothly, the succession had been the subject of much debate for decades. It also, in some scholarly views, was a major political factor of the entire reign, if not so voiced. Separate aspects have acquired their own nomenclature: the "Norfolk conspiracy", Patrick Collinson's "Elizabethan exclusion crisis", and the "Secret Correspondence".
Anna Whitelock,, is a British historian and academic, specialising in the history of monarchy. She is Professor of the History of Monarchy at City, University of London and Director of the Centre for the Study of Modern Monarchy.
John Tamworth was an English courtier, Member of Parliament (1563), and ambassador to Scotland.
A silkwoman was a woman in medieval, Tudor, and Stuart England who traded in silks and other fine fabrics. London silkwomen held some trading rights independently from their husbands and were exempted from some of the usual customs and laws of coverture. The trade and craft of the silkwoman was encouraged by a statute of Henry VI of England as a countermeasure to imports of silk thread, and a suitable occupation for "young gentlewomen and other apprentices".
Mother of the Maids was a position at the English royal court. The Mother of the Maids was responsible for the well-being and decorum of maids of honour, young gentlewomen in the household of a queen regnant or queen consort.
