of Victoria
BA, MA, PhD (UofT)
Medieval European History, Legal and Social History, J.R.R. Tolkien’s Created Medieval History, Manuscript Studies
Summer 2024: No office hours
A particular interest is canon law and English common law, both the history of law, legal insitutions and jurisprudence, and the social history of courts. Emphasis is on the utilization of court records to advance understanding of the court process and the ways in which conflict and resolution played a role in the ways people ordered their lives. An especially important aspect of this work is the history of the family, marriage, women, children and the elderly. Research in manuscript records is both part of these interests and a field in its own right. The study of documents is central to this, and not only the details of the records themselves, but study of the literate culture that used them and the professional culture that produced them.
Articles and chapters:
'The Medieval English Court of Chancery,' Law and History Review, XIV no 2 (Fall, 1996), 245-313.
'"I have ordeyned and made my testament and last wylle in this forme": English as a Testamentary Language, 1387-1450,' Medieval Studies, 58 (1996), 149-206.
'The Juridical Role of the English Chancery in Late-Medieval Law and Literacy,' in Late-Medieval French and English Chanceries: Law and Literacy, ed. K. Fianu, D.J. Guth. Fédération Internationale des Institutes d'Études Médiévales, Textes et Études du Moyen Age (Louvain-la-Neuve, 1997), 313-332.
'The Curteys Women in Chancery: the Legacy of Henry and Rye Browne,' in Women, Family, and Marriage in Medieval Christendom: Essays in Memory of Michael M. Sheehan, C.S.B., ed. J.T. Rosenthal, C.M. Rousseau (Western Michigan University Press, 1998), pp. 349-398.
'Access to Grace: Bills, Justice, and Governance in England, 1300–1500,' in Suppliques et Requêtes. Le gouvernement par la grâce en occident (Xlle–XVe siècle), ed. Hélène Millet, Publications de l’École français de Rome 310 (Rome, 2003), pp. 297–317.