Dr Brendan Smith

Reader in History

Office: G58, 13 Woodland Rd

Phone: +44 (0)117 928 8395

Research interests

Dr Smith specialises in the history of the British Isles from the twelfth to the fifteenth century, with a particular interest in Ireland. He has a strong commitment to making the sources for late medieval history more easily available to scholars, students, and local historians and has successfully supervised Ph.D. theses on subjects ranging from twelfth-century Welsh and Bristol contacts with Ireland to the career of Thomas of Brotherton, earl of Norfolk (d.1338), the half-brother of King Edward II (d.1327).

Research supervision

Late medieval Irish history is a rich and fascinating field of study, and one that is dramatically under-researched. Dr Smith would welcome proposals from prospective research students on such topics as:

The late medieval Irish exchequer and Irish finances
The government and politics of medieval Irish towns
The Black Death and the economy of Ireland
The political and economic role of the Church in late medieval Ireland
The earls and earldom of Kildare
Travel and communication in and from late medieval Ireland

It is expected that students will consider these and other topics in a broader, British Isles, context.

Selected publications

‘Late Medieval Ireland and The English Connection: Waterford and Bristol c.1360-c.1460’, Journal of British Studies, 50 (2011)
(ed.) Ireland and the English World in the Late Middle Ages: Essays in Honour of Robin Frame (Basingstoke, 2009)
(ed.) R.R. Davies, Lords and Lordship in the British Isles in the Late Middle Ages (Oxford, 2009)
(ed. with P. Dryburgh), Inquisitions and Extents of Medieval Ireland. List and Index Society vol. 320. (Kew, 2007)
(ed. with P. Dryburgh), Handbook and Select Calendar of Sources for Medieval Ireland in The National Archives of the United Kingdom (Dublin, 2004)
(ed.), The Register of Nicholas Fleming, Archbishop of Armagh 1404-1416 Irish Manuscripts Commission (Dublin, 2003)
Colonisation and Conquest in Medieval Ireland: the English in Louth, 1170-1330 (Cambridge, 1999)
(ed.), Britain and Ireland, 900-1300, (Cambridge, 1999)
(ed.), The Register of Milo Sweteman, Archbishop of Armagh 1361 - 1380 Irish Manuscripts Commission (Dublin, 1996)
Ireland and the Normans: progress or decline? (London, 1993)

Full publications

Full list of Dr Smith's publications since 1988 as held in the University's IRIS publications database.

Note: some of the documents on this page are in PDF format. In order to view a PDF you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader

Department of History

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