The Fifteenth Century Conference 2026
Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, University of Kent
Thursday 3rd – Saturday 5th September 2026
This year’s Fifteenth Century Conference is being hosted by the Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies at the University of Kent. Canterbury is a very fitting venue for this conference and we will be making full use of its wonderful historic resources. We have an exciting programme and look forward to welcoming you.
The conference, which has met regularly since 1970, brings together established scholars of fifteenth-century studies with younger colleagues at the start of their academic careers. It seeks to act as a showcase for current research, encourage discussion and explore new directions of enquiry.
If you have any queries regarding the conference, please do not hesitate to contact us:
David Rundle (MEMS) D.G.Rundle@kent.ac.uk
Registration and payment queries: Event Registrations
Conference Packages are available until Friday 21st August:
| Delegate | £160 | 3 full day conference attendance, daily refreshments & lunches, off site conference dinner |
| Delegate - Student | £110 | 3 full day conference attendance, daily refreshments & lunches, off site conference dinner |
Payment
All registrations must be paid in full at time of booking by debit or credit card. We do not have the facility to accept purchase orders or invoices for payment.
Conference Programme
The Fifteenth Century Conference
Thursday 3rd to Saturday 5th September 2026
Thursday 3rd September
11am-12:45pm: Registration
12:45pm: Welcome
1-2:30pm: Session 1 (Chair: Sheila Sweetinburgh)
Susan Rose, ‘A ‘moat defensive’ or the road to power and riches? Did the importance of maritime affairs in English life and government change profoundly in the course of the fifteenth century?’
David Harrison, ‘The great highways of 15th-century England and Wales’
2:30-3pm: Tea break
3-4:30pm: Session 2 (Chair: Ryan Perry)
John Colley (St John’s, Cambridge), ‘Quis e Britannico Graecum doctus venit? Classical learning and vernacular letters in 15th-century England’
Charlotte Ross (Purdue), ‘Reconstructing the textual history of Hoccleve's The Regiment of Princes’
4:30-5pm: Tea break
5-6:30pm: Session 3 (Chair: David Rundle)
Assia Alami (Paris-Est), ‘Female Authority and Persuasive Strategy in Fifteenth-Century Gentry Correspondence’
Ryan Perry (Kent), ‘Books of common profit and reading communities in 15th-century London’
6:30pm: Drinks Reception and Poster Session
7:30pm: Dinner on campus or in Canterbury city centre (optional)
Friday 4th September
9-10:30am: Session 4 (Chair: James Ross)
Virginia Davis (QM, London), ‘The political significance and influence of the wives of chief governors in late medieval Ireland’
Tara Shields (Queen’s, Belfast), ‘…he means to wander all over the diverse climes of the world to exercise and increase his knightly deeds - 15th-century military men on pilgrimage to St Patrick's Purgatory’
10:30-11am: Coffee break
11am-12:30pm: Session 5 (Chair: Rowena Archer)
Leah Jepson (Bangor), ‘Matriarch of York: family, faith and female incentive in the life of Margaret Blackburn’
Tim Clark (Warwick), ‘The piety of Richard Beauchamp, 13th earl of Warwick, and its influence on the Beauchamp chapel’
12:30pm: Lunch
2:15pm: Visit to Canterbury Cathedral Archives
3:30-5pm: Session 6 (at Canterbury Cathedral; Chair: Julian Luxford)
Mary Franklin-Brown (Christ’s, Cambridge), ‘Of oak and alabaster: the humanist iconography of Henry IV’
Anne Curry (Southampton), ‘The Latin lives of Henry V: the final frontier?’
5pm: Walking Tour of Canterbury
6pm: Drinks Reception, Eastbridge
7:30pm: Conference Dinner
Saturday 5th September
9-10:30am: Session 7 (Chair: Anne Curry)
Chloe McKenzie (North Eastern University London), ‘Isabella and Catherine de Valois: sisters, queens and ladies of the Garter’
David Potter (Kent), ‘Louise de Savoie, 1476-1531: female power and the written word’
10:30-11am: Coffee break
11am-12:30pm: Session 8 (Chair: Sheila Sweetinburgh)
James Ross (Winchester), ‘Richard, duke of York, and the politics of 1450: further evidence’
Mark Horowitz, ‘The uprising that wasn't: Henry VII's royal policy and the development of the modern English state’
12:45-1:30pm: Session 9 (Chair: David Rundle)
Julian Luxford (St Andrews), ‘Lollardy and English art in the long fifteenth century’
1:30pm: Lunch
2:30pm-5pm: Optional excursion to Sandwich
The Fifteenth Century Conference MEMS
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