John Antony Bossy FBA (30 April 1933 – 23 October 2015) was a British historian who was a professor of history at the

University of York , mottoeng = On the threshold of wisdom , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £8.0 million , budget = £403.6 million , chancellor = Heather Melville , vice_chancellor = Charlie Jeffery , students ...

Career

Bossy was educated at

Queens' College, Cambridge Queens' College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Queens' is one of the oldest colleges of the university, founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou. The college spans the River Cam, colloquially referred to as the "light s ...

, where he was inspired by

Walter Ullmann Walter Ullmann (29 November 1910 – 18 January 1983) was an Austrian-Jewish scholar who left Austria in the 1930s and settled in the United Kingdom, where he became a naturalised citizen. He was a recognised authority on medieval political thou ...

. He lived and lectured in London (1962–66) and Belfast (1966–78) and was a member of the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholar ...

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...

. Bossy specialised in the history of religion, particularly in that of Christianity during the

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

period and beyond. According to some commentators, his approach fused together elements of disciplines such as sociology and theology. His Ph.D. thesis was written on the relations between French and English Catholics during the period of the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

which contained within it the seeds of later work regarding

Michel de Castelnau Michel de Castelnau, Sieur de la Mauvissière (c. 1520–1592), French soldier and diplomat, ambassador to Queen Elizabeth. His memoirs, covering the period between 1559 and 1570, are considered a more reliable source for the period than many oth ...

. He frequently wrote for the ''

London Review of Books The ''London Review of Books'' (''LRB'') is a British literary magazine published twice monthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews. History The ''London Review of ...

'' and published series of articles in the journals ''

Recusant History Recusancy (from la, recusare, translation=to refuse) was the state of those who remained loyal to the Catholic Church and refused to attend Church of England services after the English Reformation. The 1558 Recusancy Acts passed in the reign ...

'' and '' Past & Present''. In 1991 ''The Embassy Affair'' won the British Crime Writers' Association

CWA Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction The CWA Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction is a British literary award established in 1978 by the Crime Writers' Association, who have awarded the Gold Dagger fiction award since 1955. In 1978 and 1979 only there was also a silver award. From 1995 to 20 ...

and (jointly) the

Wolfson History Prize The Wolfson History Prizes are literary awards given annually in the United Kingdom to promote and encourage standards of excellence in the writing of history for the general public. Prizes are given annually for two or three exceptional works ...

. He moved to the University of York in 1979, where he was professor of History until his retirement in 2000. In 1993 he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy.

Works

* ''The English Catholic Community, 1570-1850'' (1979) * 'The Mass as a Social Institution, 1200-1700' ''Past & Present'', Vol. 100, Issue 1, 1 August (1983) * ''Christianity in the West, 1400-1700'' (1985) * ''Peace in the Post-Reformation'' (1998) * ''Giordano Bruno and the Embassy Affair'' (1991; second edition 2002) * ''Under the Molehill: An Elizabethan Spy Story'' (2001) * ''Disputes and Settlements: Law and Human Relations in the West'' (2003) – edited by Bossy *

References

External links

Open-access articles and book reviews by John Bossy
from '' Past & Present''. Accessed 12 Nov. 2015.
Open-access articles by John Bossy
from ''

British Catholic History ''British Catholic History'' is a biannual peer-reviewed academic journal published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Catholic Record Society. In its early years it was known as Biographical Studies of English Catholics, and then fro ...

''. Accessed 12 Nov. 2015. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bossy, John Academics of the University of York Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge British historians Fellows of the British Academy Institute for Advanced Study visiting scholars 1933 births 2015 deaths