Professor Michael Questier, University of London Research Fellow (September to December 2008)
Michael Questier is Professor in History at Queen Mary. Professor Questier was been awarded the University of London Research Fellowship at the School of Advanced Study for 4 months, between September and December 2008. He can be contacted at m.c.questier@qmul.ac.uk.
Professor Questier's field has always been English Catholicism between the early Reformation and the Civil War and has approached it in a variety of novel and stimulating ways, exploring the multi-faceted responses of Catholics of very different economic and social backgrounds when faced with the fluctuating demands of an occasionally aggressive Protestant state. He has produced numerous articles (including some notable collaborations with Professor Peter Lake) and chapters in books. His work places English Catholicism in its Counter-Reformation context, adding the vital European dimension which is frequently ignored. His second volume of edited Catholic newsletters, in RHS Camden Series covered the Caroline court, but also threw new light on Anglo-French diplomacy in the 1630s. His most recent book, Catholicism and Community in Early Modern England: Politics, Aristoricartic Patronage and Religion 1550-1640 (Cambridge 2006) is an extraordinary study, intensively researched, of the political, social and religious networks of a great catholic family, the Brownes, Viscounts Montague of Cowdrey in Sussex, and their survival strategies across the Reformation divide.
Professor Questier's work set a new agenda for further research which he will built on during his fellowship at the School, as it addresses the wider politics of the English/British state during a crucial period which included both the Gunpowder Plot and the Spanish Match; and reintegrates things catholic into a variety of mainstream narratives. He is comfortable dealing with theological controvery as he is with the records of exchequer, as conversant with martyrology as he is with the intricacies of local and aristocratic politics both at court and in the localities.
Professor Questier is familiar with the School being a convenor in the Tudor-Stuart Seminar series organised by the Institute of Historical Research , where he spent most of his time during his fellowship.
View Professor Questier fellowship report [Word].
