Michael Clanchy
Michael Thomas Clanchy (28 November 1936 – 29 January 2021) was Professor Emeritus of Medieval History at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London and Fellow of the British Academy. Early life and education. Clanchy was born in Reading in 1936, the son of Henry, a Royal Navy captain from an Irish Catholic family, and Virginia, a New Zealander, and was educated at Ampleforth College. He went up to Oxford to read history, matriculating at Merton College in 1956 and taking a second class degree three years later. After two years teaching at Presentation College, Reading, Clanchy returned  to Merton in 1961, and was awarded his DipEd the following year. Career. Clanchy became a lecturer at the University of Glasgow in 1964, and was well known for his books, such as "From Memory to Written Record" (1979; revised and expanded editions 1993 and 2013: a study of the triumph of literacy in medieval England), "England and its Rulers 1066–1272" (1983; revised editions 1998, 2006 and 2014), and "Abelard: A Medieval Life" (1997). His interests primarily lay in law and government in the 12th and 13th centuries. He was Patron of the London Medieval Society. In 1985 he left  Glasgow, and moved to London; he took up an honorary position at Westfield College and taught at University College London, whilst continuing his research independently. This led to the publication of "Abelard: A Medieval Life" in 1997, on the strength of which he was elected as a Fellow of the British Academy in 1999. Clanchy appeared on "In Our Time" on BBC Radio 4, firstly in 2005 regarding Peter Abelard and Héloïse d'Argenteuil, and secondly discussing Magna Carta in May 2009. His work has been translated into a number of different languages, including French, German, Italian, and Norwegian. Personal life . In 1963 Clanchy married Joan Milne, whom he had met whilst at University; they had a daughter and a son.