Professor Steven Gunn
Tutor in History, Professor of Early Modern History
Academic Subject(s): History
Teaching
I teach British and European History between 1330 and 1700, including the undergraduate Special Subject 'The Trial of the Tudor State: politics, religion and society, 1540-1560' and the MSt/MPhil paper on 'State and Society in Early Modern Europe'. I supervise graduate students working on British and European political, social and cultural history in the period 1450-1600.
Research
My research interests are in the political, social, cultural and military history of England and its continental neighbours from the mid-fifteenth to the later sixteenth century. I am principal investigator of a project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council on life and death in Tudor prisons. https://www.history.ox.ac.uk/life-and-death-in-tudor-prisons
Publications and podcasts
I have written books on Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, c1484-1545 (1988), Early Tudor Government, 1485-1558 (1995), War, State and Society in England and the Netherlands, 1477-1559 (2007), Henry VII's New Men and the Making of Tudor England (2016), The English People at War in the Age of Henry VIII (2018) and An Accidental History of Tudor England: From Daily Life to Sudden Death (2025) and edited Cardinal Wolsey: Church, State and Art (1991), Authority and Consent in Tudor England (2002), The Court as a Stage: England and the Low Countries, 1270-1580 (2005) and Arthur Tudor, Prince of Wales: Life, Death and Commemoration (2009).
- Professor Gunn's page on the Faculty of History website
- 'Everyday death in Shakespeare's England' - A talk by Steven Gunn for the Bodleian Libraries' 'Shakespeare's Dead' exhibition
- The 2015 James Ford Lectures in British History: 'The English people at war in the age of Henry VIII'
- Listen to Steven Gunn on BBC Radio 4's 'In Our Time - The Battle of Bosworth Field'
- Listen to a podcast from That Shakespeare Life
Accidental History podcasts:
That Shakespeare Life Accidental Deaths and 16th Century Coroner Reports - Cassidy Cash 16/8/2024
Not Just the Tudors https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0lhdj43 16/6/2025
History Extra Deadly bellringing and fatal b… - History Extra podcast - Apple Podcasts 21/7/2025
Law Pod UK https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/law-pod-uk/id1259360349 LawPod UK26 26/8/2025
New Books network Steven Gunn and Tomasz Gromelski, "An Accidental History of Tudor England: From Daily Life to Sudden Death" (Hachette UK, 2025) - New Books Network 29/8/2025
Talking Tudors Episode 327 - Accidental Deaths in Tudor England with Professor Steven Gunn | Talking Tudors
Rephonic.com UK Spotify charts August 2025 among history podcasts (The Rest is History number 1) has History Extra number 17, Not Just the Tudors number 19; Apple (The Rest is History number 1) has History Extra 14, Not Just the Tudors 18
