Professor Virginia Davis
Emerita Professor of Medieval History
Email: v.g.davis@qmul.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7882 8354
Room Number: ArtsTwo 3.34
Profile
Professor Virginia Davis completed her BA and Ph.D. at Trinity College Dublin before moving to the University of Hull and then to Queen Mary University of London.
Professor Davis has an MBA in Higher Education Management from the Institute of Education. She was Head of the School of History for eight years before taking up her current role as Dean for Research in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Science.
Research
Research Interests:
My research interests centre on the history of the medieval church and its relationship with society with particular reference to England c.1350-1540, drawing upon evidence from material culture as well as from written sources and utilising digital technologies to explore the material.
Interests include:
- The English clergy in the late medieval ages
- Religion in the medieval household
- Women and Religion
- Medieval education and educational institutions
Publications
Books
- The Individual in Late Medieval England (link is external) (Edited with Julia Boffey, Proceedings of 2005 Harlaxton Conference, Shaun Tyas, Donnington, 2009.)
- William Wykeham: A Life (link is external) (Hambledon-Continuum, London, 2007), 245pp.
- Clergy in London in the Late Middle Ages: A Register of Clergy Ordained in the Diocese of London Based on Episcopal Ordination Lists, 1361-1539 (link is external) (University of London Centre for Metropolitan History, 2000) 76pp plus CD-Rom of 30,000 ordained clerics.
- William Waynflete, Bishop and Educationalist (link is external) (Boydell and Brewer, Woodbridge, 1993), 205pp
- A Medieval Book of Seasons (link is external) (Harper Collins, London & New York, 1992; German edition, 1997) 144pp [co-authored with Marie Collins]
- (With Julia Boffey), The Individual in Late Medieval England (Proceedings of 2005 Harlaxton Conference, Shaun Tyas, Donnington, 2009.)
Selected Articles and Chapters
- ‘William Wykeham’s Early Ecclesiastical Career’, in European Religious Cultures: Essays Offered to Christopher Brooke on the Occasion of his Eightieth Birthday (link is external) ed. M. Rubin, (London, School of Advanced Study, 2008), pp. 49-65.
- `The Popularity of Late-Medieval Personal Names as reflected in English Ordination Lists 1350-1540', in Names and Naming Patterns in Medieval England (link is external), eds. D.A. Postles & J. T. Rosenthal. (Western Michigan University Press, 2006), pp. 103-114.
- `The Lesser Clergy in the Later Middle Age’ in D. Keene, A. Burns & A. Saint, eds. St Paul’s: The Cathedral Church of London 604-2004 (link is external) (Yale University Press, Yale 2004), pp.157-61.
- ‘The Contribution of University-Educated Secular Clerics to the Life of the English Church', in The Church and Learning in Late Medieval Society: Essays in Honour of Barrie Dobson, ed. C. M. Barron and J. C. Stratford (Paul Watkins, Stamford, 2002), pp. 255-72.
- ‘Materials Relating to Irish Clergy Ordained in England in the Late Middle Ages’, Archivium Hibernicum (link is external) (2002), pp. 7-50.
- `Preparation for Service in the Late Medieval Church', in A. Curry & E. Matthew ed. Concepts and Patterns of Service in the Fifteenth Century (link is external) (Boydell & Brewer, Woodbridge, 2000), pp. 38-51.
- ‘Irish Clergy in Late Medieval England’, Irish Historical Studies (link is external) 32, (2000), pp. 145-160.
- London Friars in the Reign of Richard II’, The London Journal (link is external) 25, (2000), pp. 1-12.
- ‘Medieval Longevity: the Experience of Members of Religious Orders in Late Medieval England', Medieval Prosopography (link is external) (1998), pp. 111-24.
- `The English Medieval Clergy Database and University History', in P.R. Denley ed. Computing Techniques and the History of Universities (link is external) (Max–Planck-Institut fur Geschichte, St. Katharinen, 1996), pp. 60-64.
- `Transcending the Regions: Mendicant Mobility in the English Church in the Later Middle Ages', in Storia & Multimedia (link is external) eds F. Bocchi & P. R. Denley (Bologna, 1994), pp. 369-74.
- `Episcopal Ordination Lists as a Source for Clerical Mobility in England in the Fourteenth Century', in N. Rogers, ed. England in the Fourteenth Century (Paul Watkins, Stamford, 1993), pp. 152-170.
- ‘The Making of English Collegiate Statutes in the Later Middle Ages’, History of Universities (link is external) 13, (1993), pp.1-23.
- The Medieval English Clergy Database - a London Case Study’, Local Population Studies (link is external) 50 (1993), pp. 51-60.
- ‘William Waynflete and the Wars of the Roses’, Southern History (link is external) 11 (1990), pp. 1-22.
- ‘Late Medieval English Clergy Database’, History and Computing 2 (1990), pp. 75-87
- `Rivals for Ministry? Ordination of Secular and Regular Clergy in Southern England c.1300-1500', in Ministry in the Church, ed. W. J. Sheils & D. Wood (Studies in Church History 26 1989), pp. 99-109.
- ‘Relations between the Abbey of St Thomas the Martyr and the Municipality of Dublin c.1176‑1527’, Dublin Historical Record 49 (1987), pp. 10‑27.
- `William Waynflete and the Educational Revolution of the Fifteenth Century', in People, Politics and the Community (link is external), ed. J. T. Rosenthal & C. Richmond (Alan Sutton, Gloucester 1987), pp. 40‑59.
- `The Rule of St Paul the First Hermit in England in the Later Middle Ages', in Monks, Hermits and the Ascetic Tradition (link is external), ed W. J. Sheils, (Studies in Church History 22, 1985) pp. 203‑14.
Supervision
I welcome applications from candidates wishing to undertake doctoral research in the following areas:
- Late medieval British ecclesiastical, social and educational history
- Material and visual culture from the late middle ages
- Medieval women
- Medieval Irish history
Current PHD Students
- Julie Bungey – Ladies, Lordships and Losses; The lives of three generations of aristocratic women in the fifteenth century: Alice Montagu, Countess of Salisbury, Katherine Neville, Baroness Hastings and Cecily Bonville, Marchioness of Dorset.