Dr Gordon McKelvie

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 more than a decade's experience of teaching in Higher Education. I have also worked on various research council funded projects relating to inquisitions post mortem and the Victoria County History in Hampshire and Wiltshire.

I am the programme leader for the Foundation Year across the university and teach on several of the core modules designed to develop the academic skills of Foundation Year students. I also contribute to BA and MA teaching within the History Department, including the second year Option A module HS2310: The First English Empire.

My research has focussed on the nature of political society in late medieval England which has underpinned latest book examines cases of illegal livery giving and retaining in England over a 130 year period, examining the effectiveness of new laws on social relations and how ‘bastard feudal’ ties facilitated many of the rebellions and acts of noble violence in the long fifteenth century.

I am currently working on a number of inter-related articles on the nature of political society and warfare in both England and Scotland throughout the later middle ages.

I am a Convenor of the University's interdisciplinary Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Research and the reviews editor for Southern History.

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

• 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)

Journal articles

• 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. doi.org/10.1080/0078172X.2017.1327188
• ‘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 in 2023/4)
• 'Discovering Rebellious Bonds in Late Medieval Scotland’ in Medieval Rebellions, 1100-1500, ed. Adrian Jobson, Harriet Kersey and Gordon McKelvie (Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, forthcoming in 2023/4).
• 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

• '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.

News articles

• Scotland's medieval Declaration of Arbroath is too important for cherry picking by politicians (theconversation.com)
• [with Katherine Weikert] King Charles III coronation: what the controversy over an ancient stone tells us about historical symbols in the modern age (theconversation.com)

• Richard III's reign was dogged by more rumours than just the Princes in the Tower (theconversation.com)
• Wars of the Roses: how the French meddled in this very English conflict (theconversation.com)
• These medieval battles prove Britain's nations have never been truly separate (theconversation.com)

Online publications

• 'Outlaw King: Some Interesting Choices'. Review for History Department blog.
• ‘MPs as law enforcers in Late Medieval England’. Guest blog for History of Parliament Trust. Published 16 August 2017
• 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

Interviewed by the BBC as historical expert for Entertainment & Arts feature ‘Game of Thrones: Who is the true heir’ in August 2017.

Selected conference papers

• 'Parliament as a Stage in Late Medieval England'. International Medieval Congress. University of Leeds. July 2019.
• 'Bonds, Rebellion and the Crown in Late Medieval Scotland'. Rebellions in Late Medieval Europe. June 2019.
• 'The Wars of the Roses: An Overview'. The Wars of the Roses Public Conference. Organised by Strode College, Richard III Society Somerset Branch and the Battlefields Trust at Glastonbury Town Hall. June 2019
• ‘Smashing the Nobility in the 14^th and 15^th Centuries? An Anglo-Scottish Comparison’, International Medieval Studies Congress, University of Leeds, July 2018.
• ‘Henry VII, the earl of Oxford and the case of John Hale’. Fourth Annual Medieval Studies Day, University of Winchester, April 2018.
• ‘Oaths about retaining in the reign of Henry VII’. Fifteenth Century Conference, University of Essex, September 2017.
• ‘Recording Violence in Late Medieval England’, International Medieval Congress, University of Western Michigan, Kalamazoo, May 2015.
• ‘Illegal Livery in the Fifteenth Century: The Identity of the Indicted’. Fifteenth Century Conference, University of Aberdeen, September 2014.
• ‘Entourage, Affinity and Usurpation in Fifteenth-Century England’. Kings & Queens 3 Entourage, University of Winchester, July 2014.
• ‘Ritual and Regulation: Livery in Late Medieval English Towns’. Northumbria University Early Career Symposium on the Urban History of Pre-Modern Europe, June 2014.
• ‘Retaining Rebellion and Disorder in Late Medieval English Towns’. Late Medieval Seminar, Institute of Historical Research, London, February 2014.