J. C. Holt

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Professor Sir James Clarke Holt (b. 1922) is an English medieval historian, and an Emeritus Professor at the University of Cambridge. Holt took his DPhil at the University of Oxford, and later worked at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, where he served as master from 1981 to 1988. He has also been made honorary DLitt at the universities of Reading and Nottingham. He has been knighted for his work, and is a Fellow of the British Academy.

Holt made his fame with the book Magna Carta, which came out in its original edition in 1965. Here he treated the famous charter in the context of the political framework of its time. The book has since been fully revised, and is still considered authorotarian within its field. He has also published other works on the same period, such as The Northerners: A Study in the Reign of King John, and Robin Hood.