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Biography
My first degree was an LLB. in Law and European Studies (History and French) at the University of Limerick, which I completed in 2009. I subsequently studied for an MLitt in Reformation Studies at the University of St Andrews, and I enjoyed life on the eastern coast of Scotland so much that I stayed there for a PhD in Modern History, under the supervision of Guy Rowlands. My PhD dissertation focused on an underappreciated aspect of international relations in the seventeenth century: namely the diplomatic and cultural interactions between the small states of northern Italy (the duchies of Parma, Modena, and Mantua-Monferrato) and the court of Louis XIV, king of France. I published (with Routledge) the monograph based on this thesis in 2024, under the title:
Louis XIV and the Peace of Europe: French Diplomacy in Northern Italy, 1659 - 1701 (details here: https://www.routledge.com/Louis-XIV-and-the-Peace-of-Europe-French-Diplomacy-in-Northern-Italy-1659/Condren/p/book/9780367691875
I spent a year as an assistant lecturer in the Department of History at my alma mater, Limerick, in 2015-16, before returning to St Andrews as an associate lecturer for two years, from 2016 to 2018.
I had a three-month fellowship at the British School at Rome in the autumn of 2018, and then returned to Limerick for a second spell as a lecturer in the spring of 2019. In the summer of that year I was appointed to a three-year post as a research associate on a project funded by the European Research Council, and based at the University of Oxford. This project, entitled "The European Fiscal-Military System, 1530-1870", investigates the ways in which early modern states resorted to private enterprise in order to fund the spiralling costs of warfare. The case-study for which I was responsible was that of the Republic of Geneva and the Swiss Confederacy. In tthe summer of 2022, I was appointed as a departmental lecturer for one year by the Faculty of History at Oxford, and as a temporary college lecturer at St Hugh's College. I joined the 糖心原创 as an assistant professor in September 2023.
Teaching Summary
I currently contribute teaching to the following Year 1 survey modules:
HIST1002: Learning History
HIST1006: Themes in Early Modern European History
In Year 2, I offer an Option module in the spring semester:
HIST2068: War, State, and Society In and Beyond Early Modern Europe, c. 1567 - c. 1792
In Year 3, I convene a Special Subject:
HIST3023: The British Civil Wars, c. 1639 - c. 1652
and another Option module in the spring:
HIST3127: Politics, Culture, and Sexuality in Renaissance and Baroque Rome, c. 1417 - c. 1721
Research Summary
My research focuses primarily on the diplomatic, political, military, intellectual, and cultural history of the Italian peninsula, the kingdom of France, the Republic of Geneva, and the Swiss… read more
Recent Publications
JOHN CONDREN, 2027. Une pacification manqu茅e : l鈥檃bb茅 Hugues-Humbert de Servien, m茅diateur fran莽ais entre la R茅publique de G锚nes et le duc de Savoie-Pi茅mont (1670). In: INDRAVATI F脡LICIT脡 and ERIC SCHNAKENBOURG, eds., Sources d鈥檋istoire de la diplomatie et des relations internationales Presse universitaire de Rennes. (In Press.)
JOHN CONDREN, 2027. The Alpine Vault of Europe: The Republic of Geneva and Military Finance, 1685 鈥� 1815 Palgrave Studies in the History of Finance. (In Press.)
JOHN CONDREN, 2027. 鈥楾he challenges of dual loyalty for a Swiss officer: the Fribourgeois nobleman Louis-Auguste Augustin, comte d鈥橝ffry, in military and diplomatic service to France, 1725 鈥� 1793鈥�. In: DOROTA GREGOROWICZ and ALEKSANDRA ZIOBER, eds., Multiple Loyalties in Early Modern Diplomacy Routledge. (In Press.)
JOHN CONDREN, 2024. Louis XIV and the Peace of Europe: French Diplomacy in Northern Italy, 1659 鈥� 1701 Routledge.
Current Research
My research focuses primarily on the diplomatic, political, military, intellectual, and cultural history of the Italian peninsula, the kingdom of France, the Republic of Geneva, and the Swiss Confederacy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. I began my career as an historian of international relations and diplomacy. More recently, I investigate networks of private bankers, entrepreneurs, and financiers (particularly Genevan and Swiss) who provided financial support for belligerent states (especially France) up to 1789. I am also researching aspects of war's impact on society in the early modern period.
In the long-term, I intend to investigate the provision and care of horses for military purposes, as well as the trans-European networks through which these horses were purchased.