
Professor Brendan Smith
M.A., Ph.D.(Dub.)
Current positions
Professor of Medieval History
Department of History (Historical Studies)
Contact
Press and media
Many of our academics speak to the media as experts in their field of research. If you are a journalist, please contact the University’s Media and PR Team:
Research interests
Teaching information
One of the most positive features about working at Bristol is that we are encouraged to link our research and our teaching. I work on the character and fortunes of English colonial society in late medieval Ireland, which requires me to keep up to date with the latest scholarship on medieval England. There is no better way to do that than to teach the subject. We attract very bright students, and undergraduate reflections on matters such as the Black Death and the Peasants' Revolt have fed into my research over the years. I teach medieval English history in all years of the undergraduate degree, and have also been fortunate enough to supervise a number of Ph.D. students. Some of these have worked on purely English subjects, but I have also advised students who have looked at Anglo-Irish relations in the Middle Ages. Bristol is a beautiful and historic city which has played a crucial role in England's dealings with Ireland for many centuries. To see the wealth of St Mary Redcliffe church is to get a sense of just how wealthy medieval Bristol was as a result of its maritime trade.
The University of Bristol is a particularly good place to work as a medievalist because of the University's Centre for Medieval Studies http://www.bristol.ac.uk/medievalcentre/
which hosts seminars and conferences, and keeps the many medievalists spread across various parts of the institution in contact with each other.
OFFICE HOURS 2023-4, TB1: Monday 2-3; Thursday 10-11.
Projects and supervisions
Research projects
Digital Humanities meets Medieval Financial Records: The Receipt Rolls of the Irish Excequer
Principal Investigator
Description
English colonial rule in Ireland involved the establishment on the island of replicas of the government departments upon which the Crown relied in England. This project focuses on the exchequer…Managing organisational unit
Department of History (Historical Studies)Dates
13/01/2020 to 26/06/2020
THE REGISTER OF NICHOLAS FLEMING, ARCHBISHOP OF ARMAGH 1403-1415
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
Department of History (Historical Studies)Dates
01/04/2002 to 01/08/2002
ENGLAND AND IRELAND 1170-1485. A GUIDE TO DOCUMENTS IN THE PRO.
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
Department of History (Historical Studies)Dates
01/01/2002 to 01/01/2004
Publications
Selected publications
01/04/2018(ed.), The Cambridge History of Ireland
(ed.), The Cambridge History of Ireland
Crisis and Survival in Late Medieval Ireland: The English of Louth and their Neighbours, 1330-1450
Crisis and Survival in Late Medieval Ireland: The English of Louth and their Neighbours, 1330-1450
Recent publications
18/02/2025Migrants and Borders in the Medieval English World
Rethinking Migration
Colonial Society in Co. Louth, 1150-1450
Louth History and Society
Ireland and the Crusades. Edited by Edward Coleman, Paul Duffy and Tadhg O'Keeffe. Pp 256. Dublin: Four Courts Press. 2022. €55.
Irish Historical Studies
Review of Armstrong, Crooks and Ruddick (eds.), Using Concepts in Medieval History: Perspectives on Britain and Ireland, 1100-1500
Irish Historical Studies
Using concepts in medieval history: perspectives on Britain and Ireland, 1100–1500. Edited by Jackson W. Armstrong, Peter Crooks & Andrea Ruddick. Pp 201. Cham: Springer. 2022. £22.99.
Irish Historical Studies