Research

Book project

Cities and the Crown during the Royal Tour of France (1564–1566): Civic, Urban, and Spatial Interactions during the Early Religious Wars is based on his doctoral dissertation and is currently in revision. It explores how royal, civic and religious actors utilized the urban spaces of Angoulême, Lyon and Sens to project their own authority and to promote religious toleration and coexistence through royal entries amid religious warfare.

His article ‘The Valois, the Royal Tour, and the Cities in the Early Religious Wars’ has been accepted for the French History special issue ‘The Valois (1328–1589): Governing France between Medieval and Modern’ and is expected to be published in 2028.

Current research

His current research investigates the early trans-Atlantic relationship between the French settlements of France Antarctique, Charlesfort, and Fort Caroline with French port cities during the early French Wars of Religion. He has presented this work at Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz (2025) and at the Society for the Study of French History Conference in Groningen (2026).

Sources

His research draws on city council minutes, festival books, financial records, speeches, correspondence, visual sources, and maps.

Doctoral thesis

“‘La ville eut l’éphémère honneur d’être comme la capitale du Royaume’: A Spatial History of Charles IX’s Royal Tour of France, 1564–1566 (Angoulême, Lyon, Sens).” PhD thesis, Durham University and Universität Erfurt, 2023. Supervised by Prof Tom Hamilton and Prof Graeme Small at Durham and Prof Dr Susanne Rau at Erfurt. https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:gbv:547-202401486.