Fellow 2022-2023 Simon John
I am Senior Lecturer in Medieval History at Swansea University (Wales, GB). I joined the Department of History, Heritage and Classics in Swansea in 2016. Between 2013 and 2016 I was Departmental Lecturer in Medieval History at the University of Oxford (affiliated to Balliol and Brasenose Colleges). I previously held a Junior Research Fellowship at the Institute of Historical Research, London, in 2011/12.
My research specialisms are in the Central Middle Ages (c.1000 – c.1300). I have particular expertise in the history of the crusading movement and the development of crusader thought and memory in the Middle Ages. My work to date has also addressed themes including the theory and practice of historical writing, memorialisation and attitudes towards the past. My publications focus especially on exploring how Latin Christians processed the seismic events of the First Crusade (1095-99), an expedition that culminated in Latin Christian forces seizing the Holy City of Jerusalem from Islamic control in 1099. My first monograph, Godfrey of Bouillon: Duke of Lower Lotharingia, Ruler of Latin Jerusalem, c.1060-1100 (Abingdon: Routledge, 2018), reexamined the life and memory of Godfrey of Bouillon, a leader of the First Crusade (1095-99), and the first to rule Jerusalem after its capture by the crusaders. I have also published a number of major articles for journals including the English Historical Review, the Journal of Ecclesiastical History, and the Journal of Medieval History.