Dame Janet Laughland Nelson (born 1942), also known as Jinty Nelson, is a British historian. She is

Emerita Professor ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

of Medieval History at

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...

Early life

Born on 28 March 1942 in

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the North West England, northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the Borough of Blackpool, borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, betw ...

, Nelson was educated at

Keswick School Keswick School is a coeducational 11–18 academy in Cumbria, UK with 1360 pupils on roll. There are 309 students in the sixth form and 40 boarders. The school is the successor of the former free grammar school of Keswick, founded a ...

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumb ...

, and at

Newnham College, Cambridge Newnham College is a women's Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1871 by a group organising Lectures for Ladies, members of which included philosopher Henry Sid ...

, where she received her BA degree in 1964 and her

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

degree in 1967.''NELSON, Dame Janet Laughland, (Dame Jinty Nelson)'', Who's Who 2009, A & C Black, 2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 200
Profile
ukwhoswho.com; accessed 3 September 2009.

Career

She was appointed a lecturer at

King's College, London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...

, in 1970, promoted to Reader in 1987, to Professor in 1993, and Director of the Centre for Late Antique and Medieval Studies in 1994, retiring in 2007. She was President of the

Ecclesiastical History Society The Ecclesiastical History Society (EHS) is a British learned historical society founded in 1961 to foster interest in, and to advance the study of, all areas of the history of the Christian Church through twice yearly conferences and publication ...

(1993–94) and was a Vice-President of the

British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars span ...

(2000–01). In 2013 she gave the British Academy's Raleigh Lecture on History. She was the first female President of the

Royal Historical Society The Royal Historical Society, founded in 1868, is a learned society of the United Kingdom which advances scholarly studies of history. Origins The society was founded and received its royal charter in 1868. Until 1872 it was known as the Histori ...

(2000–04). The Jinty Nelson Award for Inspirational Teaching & Supervision in History was established by the Royal Historical Society in January 2018. Her research to date has been focused on early medieval Europe, including

Anglo-Saxon England Anglo-Saxon England or Early Medieval England, existing from the 5th to the 11th centuries from the end of Roman Britain until the Norman conquest in 1066, consisted of various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms until 927, when it was united as the Kingdom o ...

. She has published widely on

kingship King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

, government, political ideas, religion and ritual, and increasingly on women and gender during this period. From 2000 to 2010 she co-directed, with

Simon Keynes Simon Douglas Keynes, ( ; born 23 September 1952) is a British author who is Elrington and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon emeritus in the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic at Cambridge University, and a Fellow of Trinity College.< ...

(of

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

), the AHRC-funded project

Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England The Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England (PASE) is a database and associated website that aims to construct a prosopography of individuals within Anglo-Saxon England The PASE online database

. Her book ''King and Emperor'', a biography of

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first Holy ...

, was published in 2019.

Honours

Nelson was appointed a DBE in 2006 and holds honorary doctorates from the Universities of

East Anglia East Anglia is an area in the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, a people whose name originated in Anglia, in ...

(2004),

St Andrews St Andrews ( la, S. Andrea(s); sco, Saunt Aundraes; gd, Cill Rìmhinn) is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fou ...

(2007),

Queen's University Belfast , mottoeng = For so much, what shall we give back? , top_free_label = , top_free = , top_free_label1 = , top_free1 = , top_free_label2 = , top_free2 = , established = , closed = , type = Public research university , parent = ...

(2009),

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

(2010),

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

(2010) and

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...

(2010).

Works

* * (with D. Kempf) ed.
''Reading the Bible in the Middle Ages''
(Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015) * ''Courts, Elites and Gendered Power in the Early Middle Ages'' (Aldershot, 2007) * (with P. Wormald) ed., ''

Lay Intellectuals in the Carolingian World ''Lay Intellectuals in the Carolingian World'' is a 2007 non-fiction book edited by Patrick Wormald and Janet L. Nelson and published by Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of C ...

'' (Cambridge, 2007) * ed.,

Timothy Reuter Timothy Alan Reuter (25 January 1947 – 14 October 2002), grandson of the former mayor of Berlin Ernst Reuter, was a German-British historian who specialized in the study of medieval Germany, particularly the social, military and ecclesiastical ...

''Medieval Politics and Modern Mentalities''
(Cambridge, 2007) * (with P. Stafford and J. Martindale) ed., ''Law, Laity and Solidarities: Essays in Honour of Susan Reynolds'' (Manchester, 2001) * (with P. Linehan) ed.,''The Medieval World'' (London, 2001)

* (with F. Theuws) ed., ''Rituals of Power from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages'' (Leiden, 2000) * ''Rulers and Ruling Families in Earlier Medieval Europe'' (London, 1999)
2019 pbk edition

(London, 1996) * ''Charles the Bald'' (London, 1992)
2013 pbk edition
* * ''Politics and Ritual in Early Medieval Europe'' (London, 1986) Nelson has also appeared on BBC television and radio, notably as an expert on the Anglo-Saxon Kings in Michael Wood's 2013 series on the subject.BBC Four – King Alfred and the Anglo Saxons
Accessed 21 August 2013.

References

External links

Biography on the King's College London website

at the Institute of Historical Research, London, 30 May 2008 {{DEFAULTSORT:Nelson, Janet 1942 births Living people People from Cumbria People educated at Keswick School Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge English historians Academics of King's College London Fellows of King's College London Presidents of the Royal Historical Society Fellows of the Royal Historical Society Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of the British Academy Place of birth missing (living people) Presidents of the Ecclesiastical History Society British women historians Corresponding Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America