Madeleine Hope Dodds


Madeleine Hope Dodds was an English author and historian who wrote The Pilgrimage of Grace 1536–1537, and the Exeter Conspiracy, 1538. She had three sisters and one brother, their parents were Edwin and Emily Dodds.

Early life

Madeleine Hope Dodds went to a female-only high school called Gateshead High School. After she graduated high school in 1904, she attended Newnman College, Cambridge for two years. Dodds was able to pass within those two years with Second Class Honors in the History Tripos. Dodds was able to get her degree years later because at the time when she attended the college, females were not able to obtain any degree. Newnman College, Cambridge is still one of the few colleges that still give out education to exclusively females.

Writing career

In 1915, Madeleine Hope Dodds and her sibling, Ruth, wrote The Pilgrimage of Grace, 1536–1537, and the Exeter Conspiracy, 1538, which was published by the Cambridge University Press. Their work is still being recognised a century later. Their book appeared in The American Historical Review, which reviews historical pieces from 1895 to the present. Their work is well respected by scholars who are still alive to this day. Dodds was also featured in a book called, In Search of the New Woman: Middle-Class Women and Work in Britain 1870–1914, which briefly describes her work. Not only did she write The Pilgrimage of Grace, 1536-1537, and the Exeter Conspiracy, 1538 with her sister in 1915, she also wrote journals in her career, like "The Problem of the 'Ludus Coventriae'" and "Political Prophecies in the Reign of Henry VIII". The journals that Dodds have published can range from theatre and poetry to morality, religion and history. Dodds was also one of many who worked for the Newcastle Society of Antiquaries in 1908. In 1947 she was promoted to be an honorary member by the society that she worked for.