John Maddicott

Dr John Maddicott has published works on the political and social history of England in the 13th and 14th centuries, and has also written a number of leading articles on the Anglo-Saxon economy, his second area of interest. Born in Exeter, Devon, he was educated at Worcester College, Oxford. He has written a biography of Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster, and one on Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester. In Hilary term 2004, he delivered the Ford Lectures, the most prestigious history lectures in Oxford University, on the topic of the genesis of the English Parliament. He taught at the University of Manchester and was a Fellow and Tutor in History at Exeter College, Oxford from 1969 until 2006. A Fellow of the British Academy, he was also joint editor of the English Historical Review from 1990 to 2000.

The Origins of the English Parliament

The Origins of the English Parliament is a magisterial account of the evolution of parliament, from its earliest beginnings in the late Anglo-Saxon period. Starting with the national assemblies which began to meet in the reign of King Æthelstan, it carries the story through to the fully fledged parliament of lords and commons of the early 14th century, which came to be seen as representative of the whole nation and which eventually sanctioned the deposition of the king himself in 1327. Throughout, J. R. Maddicott emphasizes parliament's evolution as a continuous process, underpinned by some important common themes. Over the four hundred years covered by the book the chief business of the assembly was always the discussion of national affairs, together with other matters central to the running of the state, such as legislation and justice. It was always a resolutely political body. But its development was also shaped by a series of unforeseen events and episodes. Chief among these were the Norman Conquest, the wars of Richard I and John, and the minority of Henry III. A major turning-point was reached in 1215, when Magna Carta established the need for general consent to taxation - a vital step towards the establishment of parliament itself in the next generation. Covering an exceptionally long time span, The Origins of the English Parliament takes readers to the roots of the English state's central institution, showing how the more familiar parliament of late medieval and early modern England came into being and illuminating the close relationship between particular political episodes and the course of institutional change. Above all, it shows how the origins of parliament lie not in the late 13th and early 14th centuries, as has usually been argued, but in a much more distant past.

Selected publications

• "The Origins of the English Parliament, 924-1327". (Oxford, 2010)
• "The English Peasantry and the Demands of the Crown, 1294-1341", Past and Present. Vol Supplement No. 1
• Thomas of Lancaster, 1307-22. (Oxford, 1970)
• "Trade, Industry and the Wealth of King Alfred", Past and Present. Vol 123 (1989)
• Simon de Montfort. (Cambridge, 1994)
• "An Infinite Multitude of Nobles": Quality, Quantity and Politics in the Pre-Reform Parliaments of Henry III, in Thirteenth Century England, vii (1999)
• "Power and prosperity in the Age of Bede and Beowulf", Proceedings of the British Academy. (2002)

External links

• Home page at Exeter College
• The Origins of the English Parliament, 924-1327 available on Amazon