Dr Louisa Taylor BA, MPhil, PhD (UCL) is a lecturer in Medieval History. Dr Taylor specialises in the study of elite culture in high medieval England, Scandinavia and Iceland using comparative approaches. She has worked on a diverse range of topics, including kingship, treason, elite behavioural ideals and norms, the use of violence, civil war, and clerical armsbearing. Dr Taylor completed a PhD at University College London entitled ‘Moderation and Restraint in the North: Ideals of Elite Conduct in High Medieval England, Norway and Denmark.’ From May 2017 until May 2019, she was a Post-doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Oslo working on the topic of civil wars.

Dr Taylor specialises in the study of elite culture in high medieval England, Scandinavia and Iceland using comparative approaches. She has worked on a diverse range of topics, including kingship, treason, elite behavioural ideals and norms, the use of violence, civil war, and clerical armsbearing. She is currently working on a book which will explore the ideals and norms which governed the behaviour of elite warriors during conflict in high medieval England, Norway, and Denmark. The aim of this research is to provice a new perspective on how the culture of the Norwegian and Danish elite developed across the high medieval period by reconsidering the traditional view that the Scandinavian region was a passive recipient of western European cultural influences, such as the ideals of chivalry and courtliness, from the twelfth century onwards.