Professor Anthony Milton, B.A., Ph.D. (Cantab.)
Professor of History [Early Modern England, 17th c. Anglo-Dutch relations; royalism; Church of England 1603-1700]
Email: a.milton@sheffield.ac.uk
Room: Jessop West: 2.06 | Telephone: (0114) 22 22570
Office Hours, Spring 2011-12: Tuesdays 15:00-16:00, Thursdays 11:00-12:00
| Biography |
Anthony Milton grew up in Sheffield but took both his BA and PhD degrees at the University of Cambridge, where he was subsequently Stipendiary Research Fellow at Clare Hall for three years before returning to his roots and joining the Sheffield department in 1992. His publications include Catholic and Reformed: The Roman and Protestant Churches in English Protestant Thought, 1600-1640 (Cambridge, 1995, repr. 1996, 2002); Laudian and royalist polemic in seventeenth-century England: the career and writings of Peter Heylyn (2007); and a number of articles on political thought, religion, censorship and the public sphere in early Stuart England. He has recently been awarded a 3-year Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship for a project entitled 'England's Second Reformation: the Battle for the Church of England 1636-66', which will result in a major monograph and related articles. He is a founding co-editor of a monograph series with Manchester University Press - 'Politics, Culture and Society in Early Modern Britain' -- which has now published 31 volumes, and served as an Associate Editor for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, with responsibility for over 170 articles. As well as his work on the religious, political and intellectual history of early modern England, he has also worked on Dutch history and Anglo-Dutch relations, leading to his publication in 2005 of The British Delegation and the Synod of Dort (1618-19), a 170,000-word edition of unpublished documents and commentary relating to British participation in the most important international Protestant gathering before modern times. This volume inspired an international conference at Dordrecht in 2006 and a brief moment of fame in several Dutch newspapers.
| Research |
Current research
Anthony Milton's current research is focused on English religious and political history in the period 1636-66. In particular he is studying this period as a 'second reformation' as important as the more famous Tudor reformations, when the identity of the Church of England was fundamentally reshaped in the crucible of civil war, interregnum and the restoration of the monarchy. He is analysing how the identity of the Church of England was discussed and reformulated by a wide range of political activists, religious thinkers and popular commentators over these thirty years, studying the views and actions not just of the so-called 'Anglicans', but also of presbyterians, Independents, Roman Catholics and foreign Protestants.
Research interests
Anthony Milton has ongoing research interests in early modern English religious and political thought, Anglo-Dutch and Anglo-Palatine relations, anti-catholicism, the Synod of Dort, and royalism. He remains determined to return in due course to his work on politics and religion in modern South-East Asia.
Research supervision and teaching
Professor Milton teaches undergraduate courses on early modern Dutch history, English royalism and a Special Subject 'The Road to Civil War: England 1621-42'. He has also supervised postgraduate research students on topics ranging from the secretariat of Sir Thomas Wentworth and the bedchamber of King Charles I to tithe debates in the Civil War and Interregnum, religious thought and ecclesiastical music in the early Stuart period, and cultural interaction in the English factory in Japan, 1613-1623. He welcomes postgraduates interested in pursuing any aspect of English religious, political, cultural or intellectual history in the period 1560-1700. The University Library at Sheffield is excellently equipped for the study of the printed literature of this period.
Current PhD students
Anne James, working on patristic studies in early Stuart England.
David Coast: working on the gathering, scrutiny and dissemination of news in Jacobean ambassadorial correspondence.
| Administrative Roles and Responsibilities |
- Chair of Teaching Committee
- Careers Liaison Officer
- Tutor for Mature Students
- Member of Arts Faculty Teaching Affairs Committee
| Selected Publications |
- Laudian and royalist polemic in seventeenth-century England: the career and writings of Peter Heylyn (2007)
- 'Marketing a Massacre: the East India Company, the Amboyna Incident and the Public Sphere in Early Stuart England', in P. Lake and S. Pincus (eds), The Public Sphere in Early Modern England (2007)
- 'Religion and community in pre-civil war England' in N. Tyacke (ed), The English Revolution c.1590-1720. Politics, Religion and Communities (2007)
- 'Anglicanism by Stealth: the Career and Influence of John Overall' in P. Lake and K. Fincham (eds.), Religious Politics in Post-Reformation England (2006)
- The British Delegation and the Synod of Dort (1618-19), (Boydell & Brewer, 2005)
- Articles on Sutan Sjahrir, Mohammad Hatta and Haji Agus Salim in Ooi Keat Gin (ed.), Southeast Asia: A Historical Encyclopedia (2004)
- Articles on William Laud, John Cosin, Peter Heylyn, Andrew Willet and Edward Martin in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004)
- 'The Creation of Laudianism: a new approach', in T. Cogswell, R. Cust and P. Lake (eds), Politics, Religion and Popularity in Early Stuart Britain, (2002), 162-84.
- Catholic and Reformed: The Roman and Protestant Churches in English Protestant Thought, 1600-1640 (Cambridge, 1995, repr. 1996, 2002)