University of Oxford
Faculty of History
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Dr Tomasz Gromelski

Dr Tomasz Gromelski

Research Associate

tomasz.gromelski@history.ox.ac.uk My research interests include material culture and everyday life in medieval and early modern Britain and Europe; the intellectual and social history of Britain and Europe between 1350 and 1650; the history of the European nobility and gentry; and the history of Poland-Lithuania. I also have a strong interest in education at all levels. I have contributed to teaching at Oxford, Oxford Brookes, Reading, the Jagiellonian University, the European University Institute in Florence, and the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna. I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and hold primary and secondary school teaching qualifications. In addition, I translate books and other scholarly materials to and from Polish, English, and Latin.

Research Interests

My research focuses on political culture in sixteenth-century Poland-Lithuania, considered from a comparative perspective. In particular, it explores major themes in early modern political and constitutional discourse, including popular sovereignty, mixed and limited monarchy, civic duty, and resistance theory. It also examines how political and social ideas shaped the worldview and lifestyle of the ruling class, especially the lesser nobility.

My other major area of interest is material culture and everyday life in late medieval and sixteenth-century Britain and Europe. I have worked as a researcher or associate on three large projects based in Oxford and Cambridge: Life and Death in Tudor Prisons, Everyday Life and Fatal Hazard in Sixteenth-Century England, and Living Standards and Material Culture in English Rural Households. These projects led to a number of public engagement initiatives, including the Interactive Map of Tudor Accidents and the Tudor Accidental Deaths Top Trumps card game, for which I contributed most of the material.

Lastly, I enjoy translating scholarly publications of all kinds from English into Polish and vice versa. Some of my recent translations include The Warsaw Confederacy 1573 by Jolanta Choińska-Mika, Konstytucja 3 maja 1791. Testament Rzeczypospolitej Obojga Narodów by Richard Butterwick, and exhibition materials for the Museum of History of Poland.

Publications

Cover of An Accidental History of Tudor England
Featured Publication

An Accidental History of Tudor England: From Daily Life to Sudden Death

(June 2025)

How did ordinary people live in Tudor England? This unique history unearths the ways they died to find out.

Uncovering thousands of coroners' reports, An Accidental History of Tudor England explores the history of everyday life, and everyday death, in a world far from the intrigues of Hampton Court Palace, Shakespeare's plots and the Spanish Armada.