Professor of Medieval Studies, University of Lincoln
(Former Professor of Medieval History, Canterbury Christ Church University and Director of the Centre for Kent History and Heritage)
Louise Wilkinson is the author and editor of more than thirty-seven academic publications on elite women, children, families and households in the medieval and early modern periods, including 2 monographs, 5 book-length editions of documents, 4 edited volumes of essays, and 2 journal special issues. Her current research focuses on royal and aristocratic life in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
Her most recent book was The Household Roll of Eleanor de Montfort, Countess of Leicester and Pembroke, 1265 (British Library Additional MS 8877), The Pipe Roll Society n.s. 62 (Woodbridge, 2020), which provided a Latin edition, English translation, and commentary of the household roll (part diet account, part wardrobe journal) of King Henry III's sister, Eleanor de Montfort, for 1265, including details about Eleanor's daily life and visitors at Dover Castle in Kent, in the months immediately before and after her husband's death at the Battle ofEvesham (4 August 1265).
Having lived in Canterbury for many years, Louise's fascination with Thomas Becket's cult led to her 2020 article, '"Is still not the blood of the blessed martyr Thomas fully avenged?": Thomas Becket's Cult at Canterbury under Henry III and Edward I", History: The Journal of the Historical Association 105 (2000), 673-690. She was also heavily involved in Canterbury and Faversham's celebrations to mark the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta in 2015, and retains strong personal links with Kent.