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Jen Caddick
PhD Student,
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Biography
Jen is a third-year PhD student in the Department of History supported by the AHRC-funded Midlands3Cities (now Midlands4Cities) Doctoral Training Partnership. She is supervised by Dr Gwilym Dodd (University of Nottingham) and Dr James Bothwell (University of Leicester). Her MA in Medieval Studies and BA (Hons) in History were undertaken at the University of York between 2012 and 2016. Both dissertations "Sermons, Speakers and Physical Spaces in English Parliamentary Openings, 1399-1484" and "Parliament and Legislation in the Reign of Henry VII" respectively were supervised by Dr Craig Taylor.
Research Summary
Jen is currently working on her doctoral thesis entitled "The Distribution of Royal Patronage to the Gentry in the Minority of Henry VI, 1422-1437". The thesis is broadly split into three sections.… read more
Current Research
Jen is currently working on her doctoral thesis entitled "The Distribution of Royal Patronage to the Gentry in the Minority of Henry VI, 1422-1437". The thesis is broadly split into three sections. The first section examines the contemporary understanding of patronage and the nature of service to the crown, questioning the extent to which these terms can be redefined in relation to this period as part of a symbiotic social contract instead of a purely transactional interaction. The second section focuses on the assumption of the royal prerogative at the heart of the polity by members of the council in place of a functioning adult king, and the implications this had for the nature of royal power in this period, as well as the routine distribution of patronage undertaken by the chancery and the exchequer. The third and final section then examines the interactions between the political centre and the localities through its focus on the gentry, focusing on the case studies of Yorkshire, Norfolk, and London and select home counties.