Dr Gordon McKelvie

Senior Lecturer

School of Humanities

Gordon.Mckelvie@winchester.ac.uk

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Biography

I am Senior Lecturer in Medieval History. I am a graduate of the Universities of Glasgow (MA and MLitt) and Winchester (PhD) and have taught at the University of Winchester since 2010.

My research is focused on the political history in both England and Scotland during the later middle ages. My work is focused on politics in its broadest sense and a lot of my current work revolves around popular politics and the spread of political rumours. This has formed the basis of my second monograph on Protest, Resistant and Popular Politics in Late Medieval Scotland.

My current research is in three strands. First, a consideration of the ethics and values underpinning rebellion and civil war in late medieval Europe. Second, the role of fakes news, or conspiracy theories, in medieval Society. Third, I am beginning to write a larger study on popular politics during the Wars of the Roses.

Higher Education Teaching Qualification: Higher Education Academy Fellowship (FHEA).

Areas of expertise

English history c. 1300 - 1530
Scottish history c. 1300 - 1500
Medieval society and political culture
Rebellions and revolt
Late medieval warfare

Publications

Books and book chapters

Protest, Resistance and Popular Politics in Late Medieval Scotland (Palgrave Macmillan; Basingstoke, 2025).
A. Jobson, H. Kersey and G. McKelvie (eds) Rebellion in Medieval Europe, 1000-1500. Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer
Rebellious Bonds in Late Medieval Scotland. In: A. Jobson, H. Kersey and G. McKelvie (eds) Rebellion in Medieval Europe, 1000-1500. Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, pp 247 -265
Studying rebellion in medieval Europe. In: A. Jobson, H. Kersey and G. McKelvie (eds) Rebellion in Medieval Europe, 1000-1500. Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, pp 1-20
Protest, Resistance and Popular Politics in Late Medieval Scotland. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2025
Bastard Feudalism, English Society and the Law: The Statutes of Livery, 1390 to 1520. (Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 2020)

Editions of primary sources

(with Michael Hicks) Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem and other analogous documents preserved in the Public Record Office, Volume XXXV: Edward V to Richard III (1483-1485), (Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer 2021)

Edited volumes

[with Adrian Jobson and Harriet Kersey], Rebellion in Medieval Europe, c.1000-c.1500 (Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 2025)

Journal articles

‘The Southampton Impalements of 1470 Revisited’, The Ricardian, 35 (2025), 3-9.
‘Licenses to Retain in Tudor England, 1541-1585’, Continuity and Change, 39/1 (2024), 45-71. https://doi.org/10.1017/S026841602400016X
Rumour, Slander and Propaganda in Fifteenth-Century Scottish Politics, Historical Research, 96 (2023), 298-317. https://doi.org/10.1093/hisres/htad010
'Fear, Hatred and Strategy during the Wars of the Roses', History, 107 (2022), 3-24.
https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-229X.13181
‘Kingship and Good Lordship in Practice: Henry VII, the earl of Oxford and the Case of John Hale (1487)’, Journal of Medieval History, 45 (2019), 504-22. doi.org/10.1080/03044181.2019.1633555
‘Henry VII’s Letter to Carlisle in 1498: His Concerns about Retaining in a Border Fortress’, Northern History, 54 (2017), 149-66.
‘The Bastardy of Edward V in 1484: New evidence of its reception in the inquisitions post mortem of William, Lord Hastings’, Royal Studies Journal, 3 (2016), 71-9.
‘The Livery Act of 1429’, The Fifteenth Century, 14 (2015), 55-65.‘

Essays

'Feud, Justice and Conflict' in A Companion to Late Medieval Scotland, eds Simon Egan and Andy King (Leiden: Brill, forthcoming)
[with Adrian Jobson and Harriet Kersey] ‘Studying Rebellion in Medieval Europe’ in Rebellion in Medieval Europe, 1000-1500, eds Adrian Jobson, Harriet Kersey and Gordon McKelvie (Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2025), 1-20.
'Discovering Rebellious Bonds in Late Medieval Scotland’ in Rebellion in Medieval Europe, 1100-1500, eds Adrian Jobson, Harriet Kersey and Gordon McKelvie (Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 2025), 247-65.
The Royal Prisoner of Henry IV and Henry V: James I of Scotland’ in Medieval Hostageship: Hostage, Captive, Prisoner of War, Guarantee, Peacemaker, eds Matthew Bennett and Katherine Weikert (London and New York: Routledge, 2017), 158-73.
‘Records of an Imperial Administration? Inquisitions Post Mortem in Scotland and Calais’ in The Later Medieval Inquisitions Post Mortem: Mapping the Medieval Countryside and Rural Society, ed. Michael Hicks (Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2016), 7-23.

Popular history articles

‘Who killed James III?’, BBC History Magazine (Christmas 2024), 62-5.
‘What did common people think about William Wallace?’, History Scotland, 24:4 (Autumn 2024), 84-6.
'Roses are Red?', History Today, 73:1 (January, 2023), 42-53.
'Henry VII Challenges: The End of the Wars of the Roses', Modern History Review, 25:1 (September, 2022), 2-6.
‘Henry V’s Unlikely Protégé? James I of Scotland’, BBC History Magazine (September 2018), 56-8.

The Conversation articles (theconversation.com)

Invited scholarly blogs

Publications for the Victoria County History

Herriard: Manors and Other Estates, New Victoria County History of Hampshire.
Nately Scures: Manors and Other Estates, New Victoria County History of Hampshire.
[with John Hare] Nately Scures: Religious History, New Victoria County History of Hampshire.
Newnham: Manors and Other Estates, New Victoria County History of Hampshire.
Tunworth: Manors and Other Estates, New Victoria County History of Hampshire.

Media

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