Speaker and Course Director
Since September 2021, Andrew Hopper has been Professor of Local and Social History in the Department for Continuing Education at the University of Oxford. After obtaining his doctorate on the extent of support for parliament in Civil-War Yorkshire at the University of York, he completed two postdoctoral fellowships at the Universities of East Anglia and Birmingham before arriving to the University of Leicester in 2006. He is best known for his two monographs 'Black Tom': Sir Thomas Fairfax and the English Revolution (Manchester, 2007) and Turncoats and Renegadoes: Changing Sides in the English Civil Wars (Oxford, 2012). He has published five further edited volumes and fifteen articles in academic journals on civil-war topics. He is currently working on his third monograph Widowhood and Bereavement in the English Civil Wars. Andrew is a Fellow of the Society for Army Historical Research and a patron of the Naseby Battlefield Project.
Speaker
Ismini joined the Department for Continuing Education at Oxford in September 2021. Prior to that, she had worked as a postdoctoral research fellow in the Centre for English Local History at the University of Leicester, where she was Project Manager of the Civil War Petitions project (www.civilwarpetitions.ac.uk); and as a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Exeter on a Wellcome Trust-funded project examining early modern medical practitioners, during which she researched the careers of practitioners in Civil War armies. Ismini studied for her PhD at the University of Cambridge, where she completed a thesis in 2014 examining the career of Philip Skippon, commander of the infantry in the New Model Army. Ismini has published a monograph on Philip Skippon, Philip Skippon and the British Civil Wars: The "Christian Centurion" (Abingdon: Routledge, 2020) and an edited collection, New Approaches to the Military History of the English Civil War (Solihull: Helion, 2016). Ismini is a trustee of the Cromwell Association and sits on the Council of the Army Records Society, the Battlefields Panel of The Battlefields Trust and the Research and Collections Advisory Panel of the National Army Museum.
Speaker
Mark grew up in Devon, and worked for some years as an archaeologist in Exeter after leaving school. He was awarded his D.Phil. by the University of Oxford in 1992 and is currently Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Southampton. Mark has written many books and articles on popular religion and politics in Tudor and Stuart Britain and his particular research interests include the English Civil War; the history of witchcraft; and the history of the South-West. His monographs include Soldiers and Strangers: An Ethnic History of the English War (Yale, 2005); The Black Legend of Prince Rupert’s Dog: Witchcraft and Propaganda during the English Civil War (Exeter, 2011); and A Murderous Midsummer: The Western Rising of 1549 (Yale, 2022). Mark is a former member of the Council of the Royal Historical Society, and has given more than 200 historical talks at venues across the country; he has also appeared on many TV and radio programmes.
Speaker
Mandy de Belin is an Honorary Visiting Fellow at the University of Leicester, where she completed her MA and PhD studies in the Centre for English Local History, which focused on the connection of the landscape of the East Midlands with the history of hunting and was revised for publication as From the Deer to the Fox: The Hunting Transition and the Landscape 1600-1850 (Hatfield: University of Hertfordshire Press, 2013). Mandy also authored a chapter on the landscape of Naseby for Andrew Hopper and Philip Major (eds), England’s Fortress: New Perspectives on Thomas, 3rd Lord Fairfax (Abingdon: Ashgate, 2014), pp. 71-94. Mandy also has a strong interest in the history of horsemanship and horse breeding.
Speaker
At the beginning of his career Mark served for several years as a Cavalry officer in the 9th/12th Royal Lancers (POW’s), service which included postings to Northern Ireland, where he was mentioned in a Despatch, and Germany. More recently he served as a trustee of the amalgamated Lancer regiments now The Royal Lancers (Queen Elizabeth’s own). Mark is also one of the UK’s leading negotiators and mediators. He achieved CEDR (Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution) accreditation in 2005, is ranked in both Chambers UK and the Legal 500 and is a fellow of the Civil Mediation Council. He has a comprehensive case file that includes a wide range of commercial, agricultural, financial and family mediations. When he began to research the history and events surrounding the Battle of Naseby, the combination of Mark’s experience as a cavalryman and as a mediator gave him a unique perspective. Living close to the battlefield also allowed Mark to visually interpret the battle strategies and tactics used by both sides. As a result, he has a rare insight into what we can learn from this historic battle when managing disputes and conflicts in the modern world.
