Anna Whitelock

My research centres on the history of monarchy. My prize winning books have been published in the UK and US by leading publishers and garnered positive reviews in academic journals and the broadsheet press.  I submitted a full portfolio for the REF 2014 and will do the same for REF 2021. I am currently completing a book – Succession which explores the transition from Tudor to Stuart monarchy and the dawning of a new global age of trade and travel, technology and art, science and culture. I have just secured as PI, a major AHRC research grant application to explore the reign of queen Elizabeth II in her nine Commonwealth Caribbean realms to considering how perceptions of the monarchy have evolved over the last sixty years. This involves the development of an extensive international research network involving both academic and non-academic institutions in the Caribbean, including the University of the West Indies and with UK partner institutions including the Institute of Commonwealth Studies and the Royal Collection. See the project website for more information www.visiblecrown.com

In May 2009, my biography of Mary Tudor [Mary Tudor: England’s First Queen (Bloomsbury, 2009] was published by Bloomsbury. Drawing on new research, this book seeks to construct a new, popular narrative of a queen less weak-willed, unintelligent and politically incompetent but well-educated, courageous and politically accomplished who ruled as England's first crowned queen regnant.I have also co-edited a collection of essays on Tudor Queenship: The reigns of Mary and Elizabeth (Palgrave, 2009)  which presents new scholarship of both the reigns. My second book Elizabeth's Bedfellows: An Intimate History of the Queen's Court (Bloomsbury, 2013)  focuses on the court of Elizabeth I exploring in particular the queen’s bedchamber and the significance of the queen’s body and considers such issues as intimacy, friendship, rumour and conspiracy.

My current project presents a major new history of the establishment of the Stuart dynasty and the cultural and political 'turn' at the beginning of the seventeenth century which reclaims the period as a key transition in both the formation of Britain and, crucially, Britain's place in the world. This book is under contract with Bloomsbury.

I am co-Director of the new Centre for the Study of Modern Monarchy

I am a media commentator on the history of monarchy, royal bodies, royal succession, gender and politics as well as on public history and heritage, the Tudors and Stuarts. I regularly appear on news, current affairs and events broadcasts on television and radio as a royal expert, historical consultant and commentator. I have appeared as an on screen historian in numerous television programmes and have written and presented Heritage Wars on BBC Radio 3.

For more information see my personal website www.annawhitelock.co.uk

Twitter @AnnaWhitelock