About
I am a social and economic historian of medieval Europe, with a particular interest in what is now Northern France and Belgium in from the ninth to the twelfth centuries. My research focuses on social status, hierarchies and stratification in medieval societies. In my work, I seek to understand how the deeply unequal societies of the middle ages came to be, how such hierarchies were justified ideologically and how the composition of various social strata changed over time.
The two major foci of my research are the two opposing poles of medieval society: the lay and clerical élites at the top, and the unfree peasants and servants at the bottom. Much of my published research to date has focused on the history of medieval élites, exploring how the ways in which they demonstrated their élite status shifted in the age of “Feudal Revolution” around AD 1000. My current research has shifted to examine the unfree people (variously called servi, ancillae, mancipia and coliberti in the Latin sources) who made up the lowest tiers of society in the middle ages.
Employment & Education
I am currently Teaching Fellow in Medieval History at Trinity College Dublin. Since 2020, I have worked in a variety of research and teaching roles in Ireland, the United Kingdom and France, including a previous stint at Trinity College Dublin (2020-2023) and spells at Maynooth University (2020-21), the Centre d’études supérieures de civilisation médiévale (CESCM) in Poitiers (2023-2025) and King’s College London (2025-2026). My research has been funded in the past by the European Research Council’s MSCA fund, by the Irish Research Council (now Research Ireland), by TCD’s Grace Lawless Lee Fund and by the Society for the Study of French History.
I received my Ph.D. in History from Trinity College Dublin in 2020, with a thesis entitled Wealth, Violence and Status: Lay and Ecclesiastical Élites in the Middle Loire Valleyc. 850 – c. 1150. This work was supervised by Prof. I.S. Robinson and Prof. David Ditchburn and was funded by an Irish Research Council Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship. Prior to this, I received a BA (Hons) in History with Ancient History and Archaeology from Trinity College Dublin (2013) and an M.St. in Medieval History from the University of Oxford (2014).
Niall Ó Súilleabháin - Medieval Historian 