The Royal Studies Podcast

In this episode host Ellie Woodacre interviews Noel Cox about his upcoming book: The Coronation and the Constitution: The political, legal and theological functions of the ceremony in the British tradition (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025). We discuss a range of topics including what makes British coronations distinctively different, the political, legal and theological functions of a coronation, and what changes we might expect in future ceremonies. 

If you enjoyed this episode or are interested in coronations, see also our previous episodes on British coronations featuring Alice Hunt and Jose Manuel Cerda. 

GUEST BIO: 

Noel Cox was Professor of Law, Department of Law and Criminology, Aberystwyth University (UK) and previously taught in New Zealand. His main fields of research interest are constitutional law, and law and religion. He has been a Visiting Fellow at the University of Cambridge (Wolfson College) and The Australian National University. He previously taught at the Auckland University of Technology, where he was head of the department of law. He is a barrister of the Inner Temple (UK) and admitted to practice law in New Zealand. Since 2015 he has been a priest in the Anglican Church in New Zealand but continues to write. He has published several hundred scientific works. Principal books include "Technology and Legal Systems" (2006); "Constitutional Paradigms and the Stability of States" (2012); "The Royal Prerogative and Constitutional Law" (2020); and "Priest of the Church or priest of a church: the ecclesiology of ordained local ministry" (2021).  

In this episode host Susannah Lyon-Whaley interviews Emily Chambers about her research on the lives, relationship and networks of the women of the Tudor court. They discuss several important female figures including regnant queen Mary I, Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox, Frances Brandon, mother of Lady Jane Grey, and many more who were all born c. 1510 and were peers in the volatile mid-Tudor court.

Guest Bio:

Emily Chambers is an Associate Lecturer in Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia. She has recently completed her PhD at the University of Nottingham, UK, on the influence of personal connections on the agency of eight elite aristocratic and royal women in mid-Tudor England.

Reading suggestion:

Jeri L. McIntosh, From Heads of Household to Heads of State: The Preaccession Households of Mary and Elizabeth Tudor, 1516–1558 (Columbia University Press, 2008). Ebook available: http://www.gutenberg-e.org/mcintosh/ 

In this episode, Johanna Strong speaks with Dr Alexander Courtney about his research on James VI of Scotland and I of England, focusing on his recent monograph James VI, Britannic Prince: King of Scots and Elizabeth’s Heir, 1566–1603.

Alex's forthcoming works include an edited collection, co-edited with Michael Questier, on James VI and I: Kingship, Government and Religion, coming in March 2025. In addition to his own works, Alex recommends Steven J. Reid's The Early Life of James VI: A Long Apprenticeship, 1566–1585 for more details on James VI/I's early life.

In this roundtable episode, hosted by Victoria Barlow, Nicole Maceira Cumming and Charlie Spragg discuss their research and the upcoming 'Understanding James VI&I 400 Years On' conference. We delve into the importance of how this shrewd monarch presented himself and his royal dominion not only as king of Scotland, but later of England as well. Having co-organised a conference taking place in July to commemorate the 400th anniversary of his death in 1625, our two guests also touch upon what goes into planning such an event.

@KingJamesConf on X

Guest Bios:

Nicole Maceira Cumming is currently a Teaching Fellow in early modern history at the University of Edinburgh and an RA on the A Very Quiet Street project (University of Glasgow/Woodlands Community Development Trust). She recently completed her AHRC-funded PhD thesis, which examined the role of hunting in the Scottish court of James VI, c.1579-1603. Her previous roles have included a 2022 research placement with the National Trust and University of Oxford, exploring the history of ‘Horse Power’ within National Trust properties. She has forthcoming publications on ‘Animals, dominion and the natural order in Post-Reformation Scotland’ (Scottish Church History, 2023 prize winner) and ‘Reconstructing the menagerie of James VI, c.1579-1603’ (Scottish Archives), and is co-organising the ‘Understanding James VI&I 400 Years On’ conference which will take place in July 2025 to mark the quatercentenary of his death.

@nicolemaceira.bsky.social

Charlie Spragg is a third-year doctoral student in History of Art at the University of Edinburgh, holding a full scholarship from the Edinburgh College of Art. Charlie’s principal research interest is the self-fashioning of King James [VI & I of Scotland and England], particularly through visual and material display. She has been working independently as a historical researcher, most recently for Historic Environment Scotland on the new guidebook for Stirling Castle. Charlie will be a contributor in the forthcoming British Art Studies journal special issue, ‘Reframing King James VI and I’. Charlie is also co-organising the 'Understanding James VI&I 400 Years On’ conference. 

@cvspragg on X
@cvspragg.bsky.social

In this episode, Dr Johanna Strong speaks with Dr Jade Scott about Jade's new book, Captive Queen: The Decrypted History of Mary, Queen of Scots (Michael O'Mara Books, 2024). They explore why Mary's letters are so critically important for understanding her influence, agency and power even during her lengthy captivity in England.

Dr Jade Scott is an affiliate in Scottish History at the University of Glasgow. She is an expert in early modern women's correspondence and has published widely on the letters of Mary, Queen of Scots. Her research focuses on women's agency as expressed through the language, rhetorical and materiality of their correspondence. Her new trade book Captive Queen re-tells the story of Mary, Queen of Scots' years in captivity in England, using the hundreds of letters she wrote and those received by her to challenge gendered assumptions of her influence and power. 

In this episode, host Ellie Woodacre interviews Natalee Garrett about her new biography of Queen Charlotte (Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, consort of George III of Britain). We discuss Charlotte's enhanced visibility in popular culture thanks to Bridgerton, her role and reputation as a mother, and the challenges of being a queen consort. 

GUEST BIO:

Natalee Garrett received a PhD in History from the University of St Andrews in 2021 for a thesis on satirical prints of the monarchy and nobility in eighteenth-century France and Britain.  She began teaching at the Open University in 2021 and is currently a Lecturer in Early Modern History. Her research explores popular political culture, visual culture, and concepts of identity, including social class and gender. Her first monograph, a biography of Queen Charlotte, was published by Routledge in December 2024.
 
Find out more about Natalee's research:

• Follow Natalee on Bluesky: @nemgarrett.bsky.social
• Natalee's Open University staff page  
• Natalee's linktree with links to other projects and publications

In this episode, we are celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Royal Studies Journal. Host Saira Baker interviews Ellie Woodacre, in her capacity as Editor-in-Chief of the RSJ to discuss the development of the journal and how this links to the overall growth of the field of royal studies. Saira and Ellie also discuss new developments for 2025, including the relaunch of the Royal Studies blog, which is now a forum for the reseach and activity of the postgraduate students and early career scholars in the field.

Key Links:

• Royal Studies Journal (check out the 10th anniversary issue here)
• Royal Studies Blog  (publication date: 13th January 2025)
• 2025 RSJ Article Prize for PGR/ECRs (Deadline 15 March 2025)

Guest Bio: Dr Elena (Ellie) Woodacre is a Reader in Renaissance History at the University of Winchester. She is a specialist in queenship and royal studies and has published extensively in this area including her recent monographs, Queens and Queenship (ARC, 2021) and Joan of Navarre: Infanta, Duchess, Queen, Witch? (Routledge, 2022). Elena is the organizer of the ‘Kings & Queens’ conference series, founder of the Royal Studies Network, Editor-in-Chief of the Royal Studies Journal, the editor of two book series with Routledge and ARC Humanities Press and a general editor of the Winchester University Press. Dr Woodacre regularly engages with international media on current events connected with monarchical history and featured in the documentary series Queens that Changed the World.

• Twitter: @monarchyconf
• Bluesky: @ewoodacre.bsky.social 
• Instagram/Threads: @royalstudiesscholar

In this episode, Dr Amy Saunders and Dr Johanna Strong join Susannah to speak about their Royal Studies Journal Cluster, “Queenship and Cross-Confessional Identity”. The Cluster features in the December issue of the Royal Studies Journal and is available open-access through the RSJ website.

 
Guest Bios:

Amy has recently completed a PhD in early modern history and heritage at the University of Winchester, supervised by Dr Ellie Woodacre and Dr Simon Sandall. Her research examines the representation of Stuart royal narratives in modern heritage sites, exploring the reconstructed narratives of James VI & I, Anna of Denmark, Charles I, Henrietta Maria, Charles II, and Catherine of Braganza. Confessional and national identity are central themes in Amy’s research and are relevant in both her work on the seventeenth century and the modern heritage sites she examines. Her forthcoming book chapter, “Curating a Conduit: Elizabeth Stuart, Motherhood and National Identity in Heritage Sites”, explores how James and Anna’s daughter Elizabeth has been repositioned as the ideal ‘English’ royal woman in modern heritage sites in England. 

Johanna completed her PhD at the University of Winchester under the supervision of Drs Ellie Woodacre and Simon Sandall. Her thesis focused on how narratives of religion, national identity, and gender influenced the creation and perpetuation of Mary I’s legacy in the dominant English historical narrative from 1558 until 1660. Her research has been featured on a variety of podcasts and informed Winchester Cathedral’s 3-part series on Mary I and Philip II’s wedding at the Cathedral. Her first published chapter appeared in Valerie Schutte and Jessica S. Hower’s award-winning volume Writing Mary I: History, Historiography, and Fiction and her first monograph is forthcoming. Johanna is the Digital Seminar Series Coordinator for the Royal Studies Network and is the Social Media Coordinator for all things RSN. You can follow Johanna and her research on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, and her website. 

In this episode, host Ellie Woodacre interviews Alban Schmid and Alison J. Miller to discuss queenship in East Asia. We discuss K-Dramas and real life palace intrigues in Choson Korea and the role of Japan's empresses in the visual propaganda of the Meiji Restoration period. Both authors reflect on to what extent we can apply the idea of queenship to monarchies in East Asia and royal women who they think deserve more attention or reconsideration.

Guest Bios:

Alison J Miller, Associate Professor of Art History and Director of Asian Studies at the University of the South (Sewanee), is a specialist in modern and contemporary Japanese art history, focusing on two-dimensional media, gender, and the imperial family. She has published in the Journal of Japanese Studies, TransAsia Photography Review, Asian Diasporic Visual Cultures and the Americas (ADVA), and various public humanities projects and museum catalogues. She is co-editor and contributing author for The Visual Culture of Meiji Japan: Negotiating the Transition to Modernity (Routledge, 2021) and Transposed Memory: Visual Sites of National Recollection in 20th and 21st Century East Asia (Brill, 2024). Her book, Envisioning the Empress: The Lives and Images of Japanese Imperial Women, 1868-1952 (Routledge, 2025) analyzes the social impact of the images of the modern Japanese empresses. She received her PhD from the University of Kansas and has taught at Bowdoin College and the Kansas City Art Institute, and her work has been funded by a Fulbright Fellowship, Foreign Language Area Studies Fellowship, Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Fellowship, Appalachian College Association Faculty Fellowship, and Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship, among others. 

Personal website: https://www.alisonjmiller.com/

Alban Schmid studied politics and international relations at Sciences Po Paris and Peking University before focussing his attention on political history of East Asia during his graduate studies at the University of Oxford. He currently works at his alma mater in France. His new book The Institutional Power of Chosŏn Korea's Queen Dowagers, was recently published in ARC Humanities Press’ Gender and Power in the Premodern World series. 

In this episode, host Ellie Woodacre interviews three guests on their recently released works on medieval queens in Routledge's Lives of Royal Women series. We talk to Matt Firth, Gabby Storey and Caroline Wilhelmsson about the development of queenship in the early and high Middle Ages, the key elements of the exercise of the queen's office, how these women were styled (or styled themselves) with titles and which queens have been often overlooked but deserve much more attention.

Guest Bios:

Matt Firth is an Associate Lecturer of medieval history and literature at Flinders University and a 2025 Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow. His research primarily focuses on historiography, cultural memory, and the transmission of historical narrative across time and place. His most recent article, revising the transmission history Alfred the Great’s sobriquet has just been published in The English Historical Review. His first monograph, Early English Queens 850–1000: Potestas Reginae, released earlier this year, examines the history and evolving legacies of England’s tenth-century queens.

Gabrielle (Gabby) Storey is a historian of monarchy, gender, and sexuality. She has published widely in both popular and academic print on medieval monarchy, rulership, and representations of queenship and power in modern media. Her first book, Berengaria of Navarre, queen of England, Lord of Le Mans, was published by Routledge in 2024. She is currently working on her second book which will be for the general public. Gabby is the founder of Team Queens, an online global queenship resource, and her most recent publication is an edited collection with Zita Eva Rohr on Premodern ruling sexualities, published MUP in 2024.  

Caroline Wilhelmsson is an early career historian of state formation and national identity in medieval Sweden. She studies the legal, political, and religious frameworks which led to the emergence of Sweden as a concept. Her first monograph, a group biography of Sweden’s earliest recorded queens, sheds light on the inner workings of the nascent Swedish "state" at a time when the monarchy was still ill-defined, and the Church was weak. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at University College Cork where she is mapping medieval Irish walled towns.