Volume 17 | January 3, 2024

In Winter 2024, I am teaching two online courses: The Romanovs and the Russian Revolution at the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies and Royal Parenting from Medieval Times to Modern Times at Learning Unlimited Etobicoke. Both courses are still open for enrollment!

My new articles in the Historica Canada Canadian Encyclopedia discuss comparatively little known figures in 19th century Canadian History including Anna Brownell Jameson (one of the first female professional art critics and the author of numerous books including the 1838 travelogue Winter Studies and Summer Rambles in Canada), her husband Robert Sympson Jameson (the last British-appointed attorney general of Upper Canada and the first speaker of the Legislative Council of the Province of Canada) and polar explorer, artist and hydrographer William Frederick Beechey.

In the past few months, I delivered a royal history lecture series aboard the Azamara Journey cruise ship, sailing from Singapore to Australia, and discussed the history of royal tours with the New York Times and the CBC Royal Fascinator Newsletter.

Two of the four volumes in the English Consorts: Power, Influence, and Dynasty series edited by Aidan Norrie, Carolyn Harris, J.L. Laynesmith, Danna R. Messer and Elena Woodcare have been reviewed recently in scholarly journals. Tudor and Stuart Consorts was reviewed by Conor Byrne in the Royal Studies Journal and Later Plantagenet and the Wars of the Roses Consorts was reviewed by Michele Seah in Parergon, the journal of ANZAMEMS, the Australian and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Early Modern Studies.

Recent Royal Commentary in the Media

December 17, 2023 The Royal Year: A Quest to Balance Change and Continuity After King Charles’s Coronation (CBC News)

November 19, 2023 Sophie brings empathy to patients and soldiers in Ontario — and hints of future for royal visits (CBC News)

October 29, 2023 In Kenya, King Charles Will ‘Walk a Tightrope’ on Britain’s Past (New York Times)



October 22, 2023 King Charles to acknowledge ‘painful’ history on state visit to Kenya (CBC News)

New Reviews of the English Consorts,

Power, Influence and Dynasty Series

“Tudor and Stuart Consorts is a handsomely produced study of the careers of fifteen consorts between 1485 and 1714 and deserves attention from scholars seeking fresh perspectives of these individuals based on solid research.” – Conor Byrne, Royal Studies Journal.

Click here to download Conor Byrne’s review of Tudor and Stuart Consorts: Power, Influence, and Dynasty in the Royal Studies Journal.

“One of Palgrave Macmillan’s latest publications in the series ‘Queenship and Power’ is a four-volume collection called English Consorts: Power, Influence, and Dynasty (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023), edited by Aidan Norrie, Carolyn Harris, J. L. Laynesmith, Danna R. Messer, and Elena Woodacre, all of whom possess impeccable credentials in queenship and royal studies.

The collection features individual biographies of all English and British consorts since England fell to the Normans in 1066. This book, Later Plantagenet and the Wars of the Roses Consorts: Power, Influence, and Dynasty, is the second volume of the collection…the generally excellent quality of its biographical chapters … [mean] this volume and the English Consorts: Power, Influence, and Dynasty series are a most welcome addition to royal studies.” – Michele Seah, Parergon,