Suzannah Lipscomb

Suzannah Rebecca Gabriella Lipscomb FRHistS FHEA FSA (born 7 December 1978) is a British historian and professor emerita at the University of Roehampton, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, the Higher Education Academy and the Society of Antiquaries, and has for many years contributed a regular column to History Today. She has written and edited a number of books, presented numerous historical documentaries on TV and is host of the Not Just the Tudors podcast from History Hit. She is also a royal historian for NBC.

Her research focuses on the sixteenth century, in both English and French history, and covers religious, gender, political, social, and psychological history. She has also written and talked about British and European witch trials.

Lipscomb was previously a member of the board of governors of Epsom College. She worked as a curator for Historic Royal Palaces at Hampton Court; as a lecturer at the University of East Anglia; as a senior lecturer and convenor for history at the New College of the Humanities; and, as a reader at the University of Roehampton, where she became a professor when she was appointed to a personal chair as a professor of history in January 2019.

In December 2020, Lipscomb was appointed a trustee of the Mary Rose Trust.

Lipscomb grew up in Surrey near Hampton Court Palace, which she credits for sowing “the seeds of a lifelong fascination with the Tudors.” She was educated at Nonsuch High School for Girls, Epsom College, and Lincoln and Balliol colleges of the University of Oxford. In 2009, she was awarded her Doctorate of Philosophy from Oxford, with a thesis entitled Maids, Wives, and Mistresses: Disciplined Women in Reformation Languedoc. Her doctoral supervisor was Robin Briggs.

While completing her thesis, she worked as a curator at Hampton Court Palace, where she was responsible for organising a series of exhibitions held throughout the spring and summer of 2009 to mark the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII of England's accession to the throne. The programme won the 2011 Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)-sponsored KTP Award for Humanities for the Creative Economy. She is a consultant to Historic Royal Palaces, and is an external member of their research strategy board.

In 2010, Lipscomb became a lecturer in history at the University of East Anglia.

In 2011, Lipscomb was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.