Henry Oscar Davies Patton

Research Topic

My research examines the Chapel Royal under the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I/V. With particular focus on royal ritual, liturgy, architecture, music, and sermons, these components will be examined to stress the importance of the Chapel Royal in the articulation of spiritual and temporal authority over court, church, and nation. I am also interested in the broader interplay of theology, authority, and court ritual in Tudor and Stuart England. I am a co-organiser of the British Academy funded conference 'Music and Majesty: Chapels Royal, cathedrals, and colleges, 1485-1688', and am an editor of the Proceedings of the British Academy edited collection, currently in preparation. 

I completed a BA in History at the University of York in 2020, and an MSt in Early Modern History at Jesus College, Oxford, in 2021. 

My research is generously funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and Merton College, Oxford. 

Supervisor: Dr Alexandra Gajda

Publications

Articles

[Forthcoming] Oscar Patton, 'Majesty and music in the English Chapel Royal, 1558-1625', Journal of Ecclesiastical History, (2024/5). 

Oscar Patton, 'The literary works of the Gentlemen of the Elizabethan Chapel Royal: politics, religion, and print', The Court Historian, Vol. 29, No. 2, Summer 2024. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14629712.2024.2367336?scrol...

Reviews

Oscar Patton, 'Northern Souls: A review of recordings of English, Dutch, and German sacred and secular music from across the Reformation', Early Music, May 2024, https://academic.oup.com/em/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/em/caae...

Oscar Patton, 'Byrd 400 festival', Early Music, January 2024, https://academic.oup.com/em/article/51/4/639/7585414. 

H. O. D. Patton, review of Music And Instruments Of The Elizabethan Age: The Eglantine Table, edited By Michael Fleming And Christopher Page, History, December 2021, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1468-229X.13239.

Blog posts 

Oscar Patton, 'A Welshman [...] in Rome': an incomplete life of Richard Morris, Gentleman of the Chapel Royal', Venerable English College Archives, (September 2021), https://www.vecarchives.org/blog/2021/richardmorris.

Prizes and awards

Best dissertation in cohort prize (Early Modern strand, MSt History, Oxford), 2021

Proxime Accessit in the Court Historian's 2023 essay competition.