Fools and Wonders: Neurodiversity and Bodilydiversity at Royal Courts in England, Scotland and Britain, c.1500-c.1700

Neurodiverse and bodilydiverse disabled figures occupied a range of vital roles at the English, Scottish and British courts c.1500-c.1700. Making innovative use of Disability Theory, my PhD will reconstruct the lives of these court fools and wonders, analysing how far Renaissance understandings of mental and bodily difference, mapped along a continuum rather than categorised as fixed natural types, offered positive opportunities for such people. It will examine how they were perceived and appreciated as having the ability to provoke laughter and wonder, ties to the magical and being truth-tellers. Thereby transforming our understandings of disability during this period.