Susan Doran

Susan Doran
Occupation	Historian
Nationality	British
Subject	Elizabeth I
Website
www.history.ox.ac.uk/staff/faculty/doran_sm.htm

Susan Doran is a British historian whose primary studies surround the reign of Elizabeth I, in particular the theme of marriage and succession. She has published and edited sixteen books, notably Elizabeth I and Religion, 1558-1603, Monarchy and Matrimony and Queen Elizabeth I, the last part of the British Library's Historic Lives series.

Doran is Professor of Early Modern British History at the University of Oxford and Senior Research Fellow at Jesus College. She was a Fellow of St Benet's Hall prior to its closure in 2022.

Academic career

Doran read History at St Anne's College, Oxford before obtaining a PGCE and beginning a teaching career at St Paul's Girls' School in Hammersmith. In the 1970s Doran completed a PhD at University College London, with her thesis being a political biography of Thomas Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Sussex. Beginning in 1986 she taught early modern British and European history at St Mary's University College in Strawberry Hill, serving as head of the History Department for several years. When she left the college in 2001, she was Reader in History.

Doran returned to the University of Oxford as a lecturer at Christ Church in 2002. In 2004 she was elected a Fellow of St Benet's Hall, Oxford, and in 2009 was elected a Senior Research Fellow at Jesus College, Oxford. In 2016 the university awarded her the title of Professor of Early Modern British History. In 2018 Doran served as acting Master of St Benet's Hall while Werner Jeanrond was on sabbatical.

Doran is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and an Honorary Fellow of the Historical Association.

Personal life

Doran is married with two children, including the writer Bathsheba Doran, and three grandchildren.

Works

Books

• England and Europe, 1485-1603. Longman. 1986. ISBN 9780582354128.
• Princes, pastors, and people: the Church and religion in England, 1500-1700. Routledge. 1991. ISBN 978-0-415-20578-8. (co-authored with Christopher Durston)
• Elizabeth I and religion, 1558-1603. Routledge. 1994. ISBN 978-0-415-07352-3.
• Monarchy and matrimony: the courtships of Elizabeth I. Routledge. 1996. ISBN 978-0-415-11969-6.
• England and Europe in the sixteenth century. Macmillan Education. 1998. ISBN 9781349269907.
• Elizabeth I and foreign policy, 1558-1603. Routledge. 2000. ISBN 978-0-415-15355-3.
• Queen Elizabeth I. NYU Press. 2003. ISBN 978-0-8147-1957-2.
• Mary Queen of Scots: an illustrated life. British Library. 2007. ISBN 9780712349161.
• The Tudor chronicles. Quercus. 2008. ISBN 9781847244222.
• Elizabeth I and her circle. OUP. 2015. ISBN 9780191033551.
• The Connell guide to the Tudors. Connell Guides. 2016. ISBN 9781911187486.
• From Tudor to Stuart: the regime change from Elizabeth I to James I. OUP. 2024. ISBN 9780198754640.

Edited volumes

• Elizabeth: the exhibition at the National Maritime Museum. Chatto & Windus. 2003. ISBN 9780701174767.
• The myth of Elizabeth. Macmillan Education. 2003. ISBN 9780333930830. (co-edited with Thomas Freeman)
• Tudor England and its neighbours. Macmillan Education. 2005. ISBN 9780333946114. (co-edited with Glenn Richardson)
• Henry VIII: man and monarch. British Library. 2009. ISBN 9780712350259. (co-edited with David Starkey)
• Tudors and Stuarts on film: historical perspectives. Macmillan Education. 2009. ISBN 9781403940704. (co-edited with Thomas Freeman)
• The Elizabethan world. Routledge. 2011. ISBN 9780415409599. (co-edited with Norman Leslie Jones)
• Mary Tudor: old and new perspectives. Bloomsbury Academic. 2011. ISBN 9780230004634. (co-edited with Thomas Freeman)
• Royal river: power, pageantry and the Thames. Scala Books. 2012. ISBN 9781857597004. (co-edited with Robert J. Blyth)
• Doubtful and dangerous: The question of succession in late Elizabethan England. Manchester University Press. 2014. ISBN 9780719086069. (co-edited with Paulina Kewes)
• Elizabeth and Mary: royal cousins, rival queens. British Library. 2021. ISBN 9780712353489.