Mark Allen

Oxford Word of the Year 2025 poster featuring the term 'rage bait' with an image of a fishing hook, set against a pink and white background.

Oxford Word of the Year poster featuring the term "rage bait." The text defines it as a noun, originating from a compound of the words 'rage' and 'bait,' described as "an attractive morsel of food, on the model of the already existing clickbait." The background is soft pink with abstract design elements.

CONFIRMED: Oxford University Press has named ‘rage bait’ as the Oxford Word of the Year 2025.

#OxfordWOTY

Transnational Catholicism in Tudor England: Mobility, Exile and Counter-Reformation, 1530–1580 Published in Reformation (Vol. 30, No. 2, 2025)

Pleased to review Fred Smith’s excellent 'Transnational Catholicism in Tudor England', now out in Reformation. The book shows how English Catholicism was 'shaped, defined, and sustained' through exchanges of ideas and people across Britain and Continental Europe.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

OTD in 1623, the Fatal Vespers tragedy occurred: a building hosting a secret Catholic service in Blackfriars collapsed, killing around 100. The aftermath saw vicious anti-Catholic violence, but, as I explored, it also reveals much about tolerance & Catholicism in London. doi.org/10.1017/bch....

OTD in 1623, the Fatal Vespers tragedy occurred: a building hosting a secret Catholic service in Blackfriars collapsed, killing around 100. The aftermath saw vicious anti-Catholic violence, but, as I explored, it also reveals much about tolerance & Catholicism in London. doi.org/10.1017/bch....

Transnational Catholicism in Tudor England: Mobility, Exile and Counter-Reformation, 1530–1580 Published in Reformation (Vol. 30, No. 2, 2025)

Pleased to review Fred Smith’s excellent 'Transnational Catholicism in Tudor England', now out in Reformation. The book shows how English Catholicism was 'shaped, defined, and sustained' through exchanges of ideas and people across Britain and Continental Europe.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

I get the point about the need to sell books, but it's hard to imagine Lucy Worsley being so biased to the point that she publicly admits she hates the Stuarts. Lucy treats these subjects in an objective way and is richly rewarded for it. Isn't the whole idea of the discipline to be objective?

Probably. Laws are ignored today, when it suits. But I don't think the argument Scottish James VI was ineligible stands up to scrutiny. But probably unsurprising from a self-avowed Stuart hater, as she admitted on a podcast to promote the book. But not declared in the book.

The English right-wing and anti-Scottish press are obviously loving this, but is it good history?

That important point is not made in the book, btw.

I think an important question here is, shouldn't historians with such a reach take even greater care to be balanced and not so obviously biased to the point of announcing on a podcast that you're a Stuart hater.

excluded them too.

Henry VIII's will was also of uncertain legal force (arguably not validly executed, and never reconfirmed by Parliament). It had been ignored by both Edward VI and Mary I, setting a precedent. By Elizabeth’s death, the Suffolk line was politically dead.

James was the...

... apply? Also by the 17th and 18th centuries, when common law was fully developed, several monarchs acceded, despite being foreign-born, namely William III from the Netherlands, and George I and George II from Hanover (Germany). If foreign birth disqualified James, then surely it should have...

* as a ‘foreigner’, since common law barred ‘aliens’ from inheriting land, and
* by Henry VIII’s will, which favoured the Suffolk line over the Stuarts.

But I don't think this argument stacks up. Isn't it the case that the Crown was never treated like ordinary property, so the ‘alien’ rule didn’t..

Congrats, Katie. That's great news!

Looking forward to hearing this!

Charles I — Chiddingstone Castle New for our 2023 open season, is this unusual leather bottle in the shape of Charles I. He is on display once more in the Castle's Print Room, following extensive conservation.

Can anyone help? This intriguing leather bottle of Charles I, standing over a metre tall is in the Stuart & Jacobite collection at Chiddingstone Castle. It's uncertain when, where & why it was produced, but if anyone has any insights please let me know. www.chiddingstonecastle.org.uk/charles-i/

Such a nice feeling to finally receive the hardbound copies of the thesis. So much more satisfying than the digital version! #PhDdone #earlymodern #london

An Unsettled Religious Settlement and the Crisis of the 1620s: English Catholics, Anti-Popery, and the Spanish Match, 1622–4* Abstract. The anti-popish fervour that accompanied the collapse of the Spanish Match has been long acknowledged both by the wave of revisionists who dismis

Interested in the relationship between anti-popery in the 1624 parliament and "real" Catholic activity? Check out my new article in the English Historical Review, now available with advance access!
doi.org/10.1093/ehr/...

Good to see it in print, Katie, and also have some insight on the relationship between anti-popish sentiment and what Catholics were doing, particularly in London. I very much enjoyed reading it.

Fascinating!

A fascinating map of the parish of St Andrew Holborn, London (1755) showing the areas within the freedom of the City and those 'without' in the County of Middlesex. Intriguingly, many Catholics typically lived in the latter.

Thank you! 😊

Many thanks 😊

Many thanks, Harry. I will let you know when that is, but hopefully late May.

Just seen this Zoë. Yay, congrats!

Thank you 😊

Is there an early modern recusants starter pack?!

Thank you 😊

Thanks, Liesbeth! A rest beckons first before the ordeal of trying to publish the thesis, as you can relate, I'm sure!