Dr Neil Murphy 

Lecturer in Early Modern European History 

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences  

Email:

Neil.Murphy@winchester.ac.uk  

Phone:

01962 827155 

Address:

Biography

I studied for an MA in History, MPhil in Social History and PhD, all at the University of Glasgow. My PhD thesis was on the development on ceremonial entries into northern French towns between c. 1350 and 1570, and was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

Expertise

• France in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries
• Ritual and ceremony
• Urban history

Publications

’Receiving Royals in Later Medieval York: Civic Ceremony and the Municipal Elite, 1478-1503’, Northern History 43:2 (2006), 241-55. 

Forthcoming

‘Henry VIII’s French Crown: His Royal Entry into Tournai Revisited’, Historical Research.

‘Building a New Jerusalem in Renaissance France: Ceremonial Entries and the Transformation of the Urban Fabric, c. 1460 - 1600’. In: K. Gulliver and J. Toth (eds), Cityscapes in History (Ashgate).

‘Louis XI’s Northern Progress of 1463-64’. In: E. J. Anderson, J. Farquhar and J. Richards (eds), Visual Exports/Imports: New Research on Medieval and Renaissance Art and Culture (Cambridge Scholar Press).

‘Between Court and Town: Ceremonial Entries in the Chronique of Jean Molinet’. In:  J. Devaux, E. Doudet and E. Lecuppre-Desjardin (eds), Jean Molinet et son temps (Brepols).

Research Interests

My research is principally focussed on the history of France during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, although I am also interested in the history of England and the Low Countries during this period. My main areas of study focus on the role of ritual and ceremony in urban life and on relations between the crown and elite urban groups. I also have a wider interest in the urban history of Europe from 1300 to 1700.

Current Research Projects

I am currently working on monograph on the development of the French royal entry ceremony from the mid-fourteenth to mid-sixteenth centuries.  This research has also formed the basis for a number of articles that I am preparing, including a study of the pardoning of criminals during royal entries and a further article on the king’s conformation urban privileges and liberties during these occasions.

In addition, I am working on two closely related projects that consider the nature of Lancastrian rule in France. The first of these examines the ceremonial entries made by members of the Lancastrian administration into French towns, while the second looks at the town of Amiens during its period of Lancastrian rule, 1420 - 1435. 

My recent archival research has focussed on investigating the manner in which northern French towns sought to cope with the impact of infectious diseases during the period 1400 to 1700.  

Supervision of research students

Gordon McKelvie, ‘The Legality of Bastard Feudalism in Later Medieval England’.