Stephen Church

Stephen Church is a writer and professor of medieval history at the University of Lincoln ^[1] ] and is an expert on King John. ^{[2] [3]} In 2015 his book King John: England, Magna Carta, and the Making of a Tyrant was one of the Financial Times best books of the year. ^[4]

Career

Church is an expert in Medieval History, specifically the 12th Century ^[5] and works at the University of Lincoln which he joined in 2023 after working for twenty-eight years at the University of East Anglia ^[6] . He completed his postgraduate work in London. He is also a trustee of the Allen Brown Memorial Trust, where he organised the conference and edited the proceedings of Anglo-Norman Studies between 2020 and 2024 ^[7] . The Trust also gives conference bursaries for postgraduate students and sponsors sessions at other conferences and a postgraduate reading group. ^{[8] [9]}

He has written more than thirty articles edited seven collections of essays, two medieval documents, and written three monographs on a variety of topics to do with the period 1000 to 1300 ^[10] His most substantial works have been on the subject of King John and Magna Carta. ^{[11] [12] [13] [14]} Church has been regularly acknowledged as strong supporter of fellow Historians in their writing ^{[15] [16] [17]} and has lectured in Europe on the subject of the Plantagenet Empire. ^[18] In 2010 he co-led with Professor Elisabeth Tyler (University of York) two reading groups which aimed to read Orderic Vitalis's Historica ecclesiastica from start to finish and reflect on its content. ^[19] In 2015 he appeared on Saturday Extra on Australian station ABC Radio with Nicholas Cowdery to discuss why does Magna Carta still matter, ^[20] and co-presented the BBC programme The Last Journey of the Magna Carta King, part of the BBC Taking Liberties season, with archaeologist Dr Ben Robinson. ^[21]

Publications

^[22]

Books

• 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 - Anglo-Norman Studies, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46 ISSN   0954-9927
• 2017 – Henry III: A Simple and God-Fearing King ISBN   9780141977997
• 2015 – King John: England, Magna Carta, and the Making of a Tyrant ISBN   9780230772458
• 2015 – King John and the Road to Magna Carta ISBN   9780465092994
• 2007 – King John: New Interpretations ISBN   9780851159478
• 2007 – Dialogus de Scaccario, and Constitutio Domus Regis The Dialogue of the Exchequer, and The Disposition of the Royal Household (Oxford Medieval Texts) ISBN   9780199258611
• 2001 – The Pakenham Cartulary for the Manor of Ixworth Thorpe, Suffolk, c.1250-c.1320 (17) (Suffolk Charters) ISBN   9780851158358
• 1999 – The Household Knights of King John ISBN   9780521553193
• 1994 – Medieval Knighthood V (with Ruth Harvey) ISBN   9780851156286

Selected published articles

• 2025 - 'Keeping up appearances: penance and peace-making in the Plantagenet family at the end of the "war without love", 1174-5', Studies in Renaissance and Medieval Sources, 4th series, 1 (2025), 99-137. (This is an open access article made available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International Licence.)
• 2022 - 'The "Angevin Empire" (1150-1204): A twelfth-century union', Unions and Divisions: New Forms of Rule in Medieval and Renaissance Europe, ed. Paul Srodecki, Norbert Kersken, and Rimvydas Petrauskas (Abingdon: Routledge, 2022), pp. 68-82.
• 2022 - 'Nobility and aristocracy' (with Daniel Booker) The Cambridge Companion to the Age of William the Conqueror, ed. Benjamin Pohl (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022), pp. 163-84.
• 2022 - 'Henri III et Le Maine' in Les Plantagenêts et Le Maine, ed. Martin Aurell, Ghislain Baury, Vincent Carriol, and Laurent Maillet (Rennes, France: University of Rennes Press, 2022), pp. 84-91
• 2021 - 'Jean sans Terre et le gouvernement par un étranger: l’exemple du Poitou', Gouverner l’empire Plantagenêt (1152-1224) Autorité, symboles, idéologie Collection Colloques Patrimoines en région, ed. Martin Aurell (Nantes, France: University of Nantes Press, 2021), pp. 312-25.
• 2020 - ‘The date and place of King John’s birth together with a codicil on his name', Notes & Queries, 67.3 (2020), 1-8.
• 2019 - 'When does advice become Criticism? Criticising John Lackland before Magna Carta', in Kritik am Herrscher, ed. Karina Kellerman and Alheydis Plassmann (Bonn: Bonn University Press, 2019), pp. 377-92.
• 2018 - ‘The dating and making of Magna Carta and the peace of June 1215’, in Staufen and Plantagenets: Two Empires in Comparison, ed. Alheydis Plassmann and Dominik Büschken (Bonn, Germany: Bonn University Press, 2018), pp. 53-69.
• 2018 - 'King John’s books, Richard Marsh, and the interdict proclaimed in 1208 on England and Wales’, in Writing History in the Anglo-Norman World: Manuscripts, Makers and Readers, c.1066-c.1250, ed. Laura Cleaver and Andrea Worm (Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 2018), pp. 149-65.
• 2017 – Political Discourse at the Court of Henry II and the Making of the New Kingdom of Ireland: The Evidence of John’s Title dominus Hibernie – History pg.808–823 ISSN 0018-2648
• 2010 – King John’s Testament and the Last Days of his Reign – English Historical Review pg.505–528 ISSN 1477-4534
• 2009 – The care of the royal tombs in English cathedrals in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: the case of the effigy of King John at Worcester – The Antiquaries Journal ISSN 1758-5309
• 2008 – Paganism in conversion age Anglo Saxon England: the evidence of Bede's Ecclesiastical History reconsidered – History pg.162–180 ISSN 1468-229X
• 2007 – Aspects of the royal itinerary in twelfth-century England – Thirteenth Century England pg.31–45 ISSN 0269-6967
• 1995 – The rewards of royal service in the household of King John: a dissenting opinion – English Historical Review pg.277–302 ISSN 1477-4534
• 1994 – The earliest English muster roll, 18/19 December 1215 – Historical Research pg.1–17 ISSN 1468-2281

References

1. https://staff.lincoln.ac.uk/807aaf54-a0cf-4cdb-846a-b9d5abcb198e
2. Pearce, Seb (8 December 2015). "Professor gives King's Ely historians a Magna Carta masterclass as part of school's medieval week – Ely Standard Pearce.S 8 December 2015". Ely Standard. Retrieved 1 November 2018.
3. Maddicott, J. R. (January 2016). "King John: England, Magna Carta and the Making of a Tyrant (by Stephen Church) review by Maddicott.J.R The Medieval Journal Online ISSN 2033-5393" . The Mediaeval Journal. 6 (1): 139–141. doi:10.1484/J.TMJ.5.110985 . Retrieved 1 November 2018.
4. "The FT's best books of 2015 – Financial Times". Financial Times. 27 November 2015. Retrieved 1 November 2018.
5. "Professor Stephen Church – Gresham College" . Retrieved 1 November 2018.
6. https://research-portal.uea.ac.uk/en/persons/stephen-church
7. https://boydellandbrewer.com/books/series/anglo-norman-studies/
8. "Allen Brown Memorial Trust – Charity Commission" . Retrieved 1 November 2018.
9. Bates, David (2013). Bates.D Anglo-Norman Studies XXXV: Proceedings of the Battle Conference 2012 ISBN 9781843838579. Boydell Press. ISBN   9781843838579 . Retrieved 1 November 2018.
10. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8829-0019
11. "Service to Commemorate 800th Anniversary of King John's Death – Church of England Diocese of Worcester p.13 October 2016" . Retrieved 1 November 2018.
12. "Cathedral conference with international speakers will mark 800th anniversary of King John's burial – Worcester News Mason.V p.4 March 2016". 4 March 2016. Retrieved 1 November 2018.
13. "Anthem School History Conference – Royal Historical Society" . Retrieved 1 November 2018.
14. "Edinburgh debate to discuss Magna Carta and Europe – Scottish Legal News p.9 October 2015". 9 October 2015. Retrieved 1 November 2018.
15. Yoshikawa, Naoë Kukita (2015). Yoshikawa.NK Medicine, Religion and Gender in Medieval Culture ISBN 9781843844013. Boydell & Brewer. ISBN   9781843844013 . Retrieved 1 November 2018.
16. Worby, Sam (2015). Worby.S Law and Kinship in Thirteenth-Century England ISBN 9780861933389. Boydell & Brewer. ISBN   9780861933389 . Retrieved 1 November 2018.
17. Jarrett, Jonathan Andrew (2010). Jarrett.AJ Rulers and Ruled in Frontier Catalonia, 880–1010: Pathways of Power ISBN 9780861933099. Boydell & Brewer. ISBN   9780861933099 . Retrieved 1 November 2018.
18. Anh-Dao Bui Tran (2017). "Stephen Church: Succession and Interregnum in the Lands of the Angevins (02/11) at Sorbonne University – Research House". doi:10.58079/u151 . Retrieved 1 November 2018.
19. Rozier, Charles C.; Roach, Daniel; Gasper, Giles Edward Murray; Hout, Elizabeth van (2016). Rozier.C, Roach.D, Gasper.E.M.G, Van Houts.E Orderic Vitalis: Life, Works and Interpretations ISBN 978-1783271252. Boydell & Brewer. ISBN   9781783271252 . Retrieved 1 November 2018.
20. "Saturday Extra – ABC Radio". Australian Broadcasting Corporation . 12 June 2015. Retrieved 1 November 2018.
21. "Fresh clues to King John's lost treasure in East Anglia – BBC News". BBC News. Retrieved 1 November 2018.
22. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8829-0019