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About Me

I am an historian of sixteenth-century Scotland and characterise my interests as being about politics with both a capital P (kings, queens, parliaments and institutions) and a small p (propaganda, and the impact of the actions of the governors on the governed). I am currently researching my third book on the Anglo-Scottish wars of the 1540s, fought over Scotland’s independence and the marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots. These are traditionally known as the ‘Rough Wooings’ but I will be arguing we need to ditch this gendered nineteenth-century term for something more contemporary (and more gritty) – ‘the Burning Times’. Watch this space!

I am also passionate about sharing my research through public lectures (from the British Library or National Library of Scotland to local history groups or schools), collaborations on interactive content for exhibitions (such as the Newfields Art Museum in Indianapolis), podcasts and popular history writing – some examples of these are below.

Mary Queen of Scots The Power and the Glory – The British Library (bl.uk)

BBC Radio Scotland – Time Travels, Animal Magic

BBC Radio Scotland – Time Travels, Burning Questions

Podcast | Resources | British Association For Local History (balh.org.uk) – series 1 episode 3

Recent Publications

Monographs:

Parliament and Convention in the Personal Rule of James V of Scotland, 1528-42 (2022) – Parliament and Convention in the Personal Rule of James V of Scotland, 1528–1542 | SpringerLink

Regency in Sixteenth-Century Scotland (2015) – Regency in Sixteenth-Century Scotland (boydellandbrewer.com)

 

Peer-reviewed articles:

‘Reassessing the Scottish Parliamentary Records, 1528-1548: manuscript, print, bureaucracy and royal authority’, Parliamentary History 40 (October 2021), pp. 417-442.

 

With Laura Stewart, ‘Writing Scottish Parliamentary History, c.1500 – 1707’, Parliamentary History 40:1 (2021), pp. 93-112.

 

‘Religious Reform, the House of Guise and the Council of Fontainebleau: The French Memorial Service for Marie de Guise, August 1560’, Etudes Epistémès 37 (2020).

 

‘Spies and Intelligence in Scotland, c.1530-1550’, in Crossing Borders: Boundaries and Margins in Medieval and Early Modern Britain ed. S. Butler and K. Kesselring (Brill, 2018), pp. 83-106.

 

‘Marie de Guise’s participation in governmental institutions, 1542-54’, Annales de l’Est 1, 2017, 7e série, 66e année, (2018), pp. 123-135.

 

‘The Anglo-Scottish war of 1558 and the Scottish Reformation’, History 101 (2017), pp.201-224.

 

‘James VI and James Douglas, Regent Morton’, in James VI and Noble Power in Scotland, 1578-1603 ed. Steven Reid and Miles Kerr-Patterson (Routledge, 2017), pp. 12-31.

 

‘The Privy Council of James V of Scotland, 1528-42’, Historical Journal 59 (2016), pp. 23-44.

 

‘News from Scotland in England, 1559-1602’, Huntington Library Quarterly (2016), pp. 533-599.

 

‘The sixteenth century price rise: new evidence from Scotland, 1500-85’, Economic History Review 61 (2015), pp. 167-190.

 

‘A Scottish anti-Catholic satire crossing the border: ‘Ane bull of our haly fader the paip, quhairby it is leesum to everie man to haif tua wyffis’ and the Redeswyre Raid of 1575’, English Historical Review 129 (2014), pp. 1346-1370.

 

‘Kinship and diplomacy in sixteenth-century Scotland: the earl of Northumberland’s Scottish captivity in its domestic and international context, 1569–72’, Historical Research 87 (2014), pp. 229-250.

 

‘The Library Catalogues of Sir Hans Sloane: their authors, organisation and functions’, Electronic British Library Journal (December 2011).

 

‘The Attempted Divorce of James Hamilton, earl of Arran and Governor of Scotland’, Innes Review 61.1 (2010), pp. 1-23.

 

‘The Response to the Regent Moray’s Assassination’, Scottish Historical Review 88 (2009), pp. 9-33.

Media Coverage

Social Media

Country Focus

Scotland

Expertise by Geography

British Isles

Expertise by Chronology

Early Modern

Expertise by Topic

Politics