Nicholas Vincent

Medieval history; Plantagenet kingship; Thomas Becket; relics and charters; Magna Carta.

Nicholas Vincent has published twenty-five books and some 150 academic articles on various aspects of English and European history in the 12th and 13th centuries.  Having taught at Oxford, Cambridge, Paris and Canterbury, he has been based at UEA since 2003.  For the British Academy, he is engaged in an edition of the charters of the Plantagenet kings and queens, from Henry II to King John.  The first six volumes of this (The Letters and Charters of Henry II) were published in 2020.  A seventh is due to appear in 2023, and an eighth shortly thereafter.  These are to be followed soon by an edition of the letters and charters of Henry II's Queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine.  Gathered from materials scattered internationally across more than 300 libraries and archives, these volumes are intended to transform understanding of English, French, and northern European history, in the broad period from 1150 onwards.  For the 800th anniversary celebrations of 2015, he led a major project researching the background to Magna Carta, including the discovery of a new original of the charter, now displayed in its own museum in Kent.  With Professor Joerg Peltzer (Heidelberg and UEA), he currently leads a project researching the life and letters of 'Richard of Cornwall (d.1271): Germany's First (and Only) English King'. 

At undergraduate level, he teaches courses in medieval British and European History.  He is happy to supervise graduate students in most subjects relating to the period 1000-1300 AD, with an additional and particular interest in medievalism and the post-medieval reception of the medieval past.  He has thus far supervised to completion more than a dozen PhD theses, with ongoing MA or doctoral candidates working on such themes as magic and heresy, the Templars, the chancery of King Henry III, the life and career of Edmund first earl of Lancaster, and the religious foundations established during the reign of King Stephen.

He is an elected Fellow of the British Academy, a Corresponding Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America, and has held visiting fellowships or professorships at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Poitiers, and at the École des Chartes in Paris.  
Nicholas Vincent Publications (PDF 131 KB)