User:PhD Historian
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PhDHistorian is the username for a middle-aged man who has recently earned a PhD in British History.
His 2006 dissertation is entitled: "Jane the Quene": New Evidence and New Perspectives on Lady Jane Grey, England's Nine-Days Queen. That dissertation is being re-written as a book and shopped around among academic and scholarly publishers. Publication will not occur before the summer or autumn of 2007.
PhDHistorian has recently published on Jane Grey in an article for "History Today" magazine. That article, "A New Face For The Lady," discusses the possibility of identifying as Jane Grey the sitter in a ca. 1553 portrait now in the permanent collection of the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge University (UK). The identification of the sitter as Jane Grey remains tentative and controversial, but research is ongoing to solidify that conclusion.
He has also presented papers on Jane Grey at several academic conferences, including the annual meeting of the North American Conference on British Studies (NACBS). He is currently preparing an article on depictions of Jane Grey in late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth century historical narrative painting (i.e. in works by Flagg, Leslie, Northcote, Copley, and Delaroche).
His forthcoming biographical study of Jane Grey questions the legend or myth of Jane Grey as it has been presented by such recent authors as Hester Chapman, Mary Luke, Alison Plowden, and Faith Cook. The study sets the legend aside and begins anew using only primary source materials. It situates Jane Grey in her own historical context: an aristocratic young woman living in a patriarchal society undergoing sweeping social, political, cultural, and religious change. Some of the conclusions reached directly contradict the "received wisdom" about Jane Grey. It is expected that the work will be controversial among Jane fans, as it presents a "new" Jane Grey who is somewhat less saint-like than popular, non-academic historians would have her be.
PhDHistorian is happy to respond to reasonable questions and inquiries about Jane Grey or Tudor history.
