Ian Mortimer (historian)
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Ian Mortimer, born in 1967, is a British historian. He won a scholarship to Eastbourne College and read for degrees in History at the University of Exeter (BA, PhD) and in Archives Studies at University College London. He has worked for several major research institutions, including the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, and the universities of Exeter and Reading. He is now a Honorary Fellow of the University of Exeter and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
He is best known for his sequence of biographies of medieval political leaders: first Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, then Edward III and Henry IV. In particular he is well-known for pioneering the argument that we can be certain that Edward II did not die in Berkeley castle in 1327. A simplified version of his argument, originally put forward in the English Historical Review, is available here.
He also has carried out research into the social history of early modern medicine. His essay ‘The Triumph of the the Doctors’ was awarded the 2004 Alexander Prize by the Royal Historical Society. In this he demonstrated that ill and injured people close to death shifted their hopes of physical salvation from an exclusively religious source of healing power (God, or Christ) to a predominantly human one (physicians and surgeons) over the period 1615-70, and argued that this shift of outlook was among the most profound changes western society has ever experienced.
He is the nephew of the British tennis player Angela Mortimer. He lives on Dartmoor, in Devon, England.
[edit] Major works
- The Fears of Henry IV: the Life of England's Self-Made King (2007)
- The Perfect King: the Life of Edward III, Father of the English Nation (2006)
- ‘The Death of Edward II in Berkeley Castle’, The English Historical Review, cxx, 489 (2005), pp. 1175-1214.
- ‘The Triumph of the Doctors: Medical Assistance to the Dying, 1570-1720’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 15 (2005), pp. 97-116.
- The Greatest Traitor: the Life of Sir Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, Ruler of England 1327-1330 (2003)
