Robin Briggs

Robin Briggs

FBA, FRSL
History
Emeritus Fellow since 2009

Educated at Felsted School and Balliol College, first class honours Modern History 1964. Fellow by Examination, All Souls College, 1964. Later Junior Research Fellow, then Senior Research Fellow until retirement in 2009. Special University Lecturer in Modern History, 1976-2009. Junior Proctor 1972-3. Historian of France (16th-18th centuries), special interests in history of popular religion, history of witchcraft, intellectual and scientific history, naval history. Current work on early seventeenth century France and on history of witchcraft in Europe.

Links
Email: robin.briggs@all-souls.ox.ac.uk
Research Areas
French and European History, C.1500-1800
History of Religion and of Witchcraft
History of Science
Naval History

Selected Publications

Early Modern France, 1560-1715

(OUP 1977, 2nd ed. 1998)

Communities of Belief: Cultural and Social Tensions in Early Modern France

(OUP 1989)

Witches and Neighbours: the Social and Cultural Context of European Witchcraft

(HarperCollins 1996, 2nd ed. Blackwells 2002)

The Witches of Lorraine

(OUP 2007)

A History of North Western Europe

(Wiley-Blackwell 2025)

Committee Work
  • University General Board of Faculties (1973-80), 
  • Humanities Board, Libraries Board and other committees. 
  • Chair of Working Party to reform Modern History School (1984-6). 
  • Member of General Purposes Committee, All Souls, 1968-2009, and several other college committees. 
  • Dean of Visiting Fellows, 1982-92.