astronomy

Tom Licence

Tom Licence is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Tom Licence rather than just read about it. In short: Tom Oliver Licence FSA, FRHistS, is a British historian specialising in the period 950–1200, with an additional interest in Victorian consumer waste. He is Professor of Medieval History and Literature at the University of East Anglia and a former director of the Centre of East Anglian Studies.

Key takeaways

Tom Licence belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Tom Licence to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Tom Licence from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Tom Oliver Licence FSA, FRHistS, is a British historian specialising in the period 950–1200, with an additional interest in Victorian consumer waste. He is Professor of Medieval History and Literature at the University of East Anglia and a former director of the Centre of East Anglian Studies.

Education Licence attended Westcliff High School for Boys and has an MA in history (2002), MPhil in medieval history (2003) and a PhD (2006) from Magdalene College, University of Cambridge. His thesis title was "England's hermits, 970–1220".

Career Licence was appointed lecturer at the University of East Anglia in 2009 and became a professor there in 2019. For three years from 2021 he held a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship, which relieved him from teaching duties, to support him in writing a biography of Harold Godwinson for the Yale English Monarchs series. For three years from September 2022 he held a senior research fellowship at Magdalene College, Cambridge. His work on Victorian consumer waste, represented in his book and website What the Victorians threw away, has attracted international press coverage. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, the Society of Antiquaries and the Higher Education Academy. In 2020, Licence's biography of Edward the Confessor was published by Yale University Press as Edward the Confessor: Last of the Royal Blood. The book received broadly positive reviews for its revisionist take on Edward's relationship with the House of Godwin, though historian Marc Morris described it as a "royal disappointment." Licence's biography of Harold Godwinson, Harold: Warrior King, is due to be published in 2026. On 21 March 2026 Licence published a claim that the English army did not march but sail from the Battle of Stamford Bridge to the Battle of Hastings in 1066; this claim attracted significant media coverage. While metal detecting in 2024, he discovered a hoard of 18 Iron Age gold coins; these were dated to between 25 BC and AD 10, in the reign of King Dubnovellaunos, ruler of the Trinovantes tribe. The hoard was classed as treasure and was recorded with the Portable Antiquities Scheme, but was dis-claimed after no museum bought them. The Bury St Edmunds Hoard was sold by auction in March 2026 for £33,200.

Selected publications Hermits and Recluses in English society, 950–1200 (2011, Oxford UP: ISBN 978-0199592364) Herman the Archdeacon and Goscelin of Saint-Bertin: Miracles of St Edmund, ed. (2014), Clarendon Press ISBN 978-0199689194 Bury St Edmunds and the Norman Conquest (2014, edited, Boydell Press: ISBN 978-1843839316) What the Victorians Threw Away (2015, Oxbow book: ISBN 978-1782978756) Edward the Confessor: Last of the Royal Blood (2020), Yale University Press, ISBN 978-0300211542

References

External links Official website at UEA Profile at Magdalene College What the Victorians threw away: the book, the database, the project

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Tom Licence

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Tom Licence claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Tom Licence before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Tom Licence ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Tom Licence

In research: Tom Licence appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Tom Licence in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Tom Licence is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 21st-century British historians, Academics of the University of East Anglia, Alumni of the University of Cambridge, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Tom Licence outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Tom Licence in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Tom Licence means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Tom Licence out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Tom Licence in simple terms?

Why does Tom Licence matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Tom Licence?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Tom Licence.