Francesca Cannon, PhD Student

History in the Making

The history of the monarchy, perhaps unsurprisingly, often focuses on the lives of kings and queens that ruled over the country, rather than the relationships between their spouses and family members, unless they played what was seen to be a pivotal role, directly or indirectly, in shaping society.

Francesca Cannon, who is a PhD student based in the Lincoln School of Humanities and Heritage, is aiming to change all that by giving a voice to three medieval queens whose queenships occurred between the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries: Marie of Brabant, Queen of France, Margaret of France, Queen of England, and Elizabeth de Burgh, Queen of Scots.

More importantly, Francesca is exploring the roles of these queens as stepmothers and second wives to their husbands, and in particular, their positions and relationships to their husbands' legitimate children from previous marriages. 

“It is a surprisingly understudied area of research,” explains Francesca. “I’ve been working in the archives examining exchequer and household rolls, medieval manuscripts, and related literary sources to try to present an accurate account of the important lives of these three women and how their queenships affected their relationships with family members and society at large.”

Stepping Into the Past

Although it has been a challenge to decipher some of the content of the medieval manuscripts and texts, which are often written in Latin or French, Francesca says she has been enjoying the experience of undertaking a PhD at Lincoln.

“I absolutely love it,” says Francesca, who also completed her MA in Medieval Studies at the University of Lincoln. “It’s great being able to delve into the medieval past and discover the full and colourful lives of these kinds of people.

“Of course, it’s no easy task undertaking a PhD and you really have to want to do it, committing yourself to many years of intense study. But it’s worth it and I’ve been helped by the people here at Lincoln, especially my supervisors Professor Louise Wilkinson and Professor Antonella Luizzo Scorpo, whose support and advice has been invaluable, both in terms of their academic expertise but on a personal level as well.”

Francesca is also involved with the University of Lincoln’s Medieval Studies Research Group, which features a number of key academics exploring the medieval past, including Louise and Antonella. The group holds a number of events and activities throughout the year, including ‘Medieval Week’ and the medieval lecture and seminar series, which feature internationally renowned guest speakers and bring together academics, researchers, and students to give them the opportunity to share their research and garner feedback from peers and experts in the field.

Stepping Into the Future

Francesca is now sharing her research at major conferences. She presented at last year’s prestigious International Medieval Congress in Leeds, which brings together medievalists from more than 60 countries, and she recently had her abstract accepted for the 2024 event.

Francesca also presented a paper at the Medieval Studies Research Group conference entitled: Loyalty in the Medieval World, which was supported by the Leverhulme Trust, Haskins Society, Lincoln Record Society, and the Battle Conference on Anglo-Norman Studies. “This was a fantastic event,” says Francesca, who discussed her research on Margaret of France during the three-day event and was joined by academics and researchers from Lincoln and around the world.

"It's great to share your work with people who are passionate and care about your research. As well as giving you a huge amount of confidence and counteracting those ‘imposter syndrome’ fears that we all have, attending conferences and similar kinds of events are a great way of meeting like-minded people and finding out what it is like to be an academic."