Dr Robert Stansfield was an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Lancaster. He read History as an undergraduate (BA) at Lancaster: his studies involved reading Geography and Music (Composition) and included a performance of his Concert Overture (Op. 56) by the university’s Symphony Orchestra, as well as studying at the University of Copenhagen, a Special Subject on Richard III, and a thesis on Later Lollardy.

Awarded funding by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Dr Stansfield’s two-shire (MA) study of Somerset and Dorset (1461–91) examined political structures, governance, and elites within the wider context of later medieval English government. This was a precursor to his broader (four-county) AHRC-funded doctoral investigation into the feasibility of a regional approach to the governance, politics, and elites of Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, and Dorset (1450–1500). Exploring Edward IV’s ‘regional’ policy and questioning its reflection of regional identities, his synthesis evaluated the regionality of elites’ interests and interactions – whilst highlighting the roles of regional governors, royal household retainers, and the Duchy of Cornwall – thereby providing an insight into regions, identities, patronage, and royal authority within the context of longer-term trends in governance and state formation.

Dr Stansfield was a Tutor, Associate Lecturer, and Research Associate at Lancaster, where he also studied for a (Higher Education) teaching qualification in Academic Practice (PGCAP) whilst teaching British and European History from ‘The Fall of Rome’ to the seventeenth century. He was Convenor of Lancaster’s Faculty of Arts and Humanities interdisciplinary Postgraduate Seminars (2004–7), and has presented research papers at numerous seminars and conferences. He is also a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).

Dr Stansfield’s research focuses on the political history of late medieval and early modern Britain, including issues of governance, core-periphery relations, the Duchy of Cornwall, and the royal court, household, and affinity.

A long-standing interest in genealogy, local history, and antiquarianism was the stimulus for study of Lancashire’s gentry and non-gentry families from medieval to modern eras: investigating kinship, inheritance patterns, agricultural practices, and socio-political, religious, and other interests.

BA MA PhD PGCAP (Lanc.) FHEA