European Travel and the Rise of Renaissance Gentility in England
Dr Christine Jackson
Senior Fellow, Kellogg College, University of Oxford

Daniel-Rabel-Final-Grand-Ballet-1632.-From-Le-Ballet-de-Cour-au-XVII-e-Siecle-M.-.F.-Christout-Geneva-1987
Dr Jackson will consider how the growth in the appetite for travel transformed notions of gentility from the time of Elizabeth I to the English Civil War. Visiting the major European cultural centres made an impact on the sons of the upper classes, affecting their behaviour and manners, from learning to ride the great horse and bear arms, through learning languages and courtly etiquette to taking dancing and singing lessons and attending ballets, balls, & courtly entertainments.
Dr Jackson is University Lecturer in History at Oxford University Department for Continuing Education. Her research interests focus on the nobility and gentry in the 16th & 17th centuries. She is currently writing a biographical study of Lord Herbert of Cherbury (c.1582-1648), courtier, soldier diplomat, poet, philosopher and historian at the courts of James I and Charles I.