Gerald Leslie Harriss FBA (22 May 1925 - 2 November 2014) was an English historian of the Late Middle Ages. His work focused on the parliamentary, financial and administrative history of the period. Harriss was a Fellow of

Magdalen College, Oxford Magdalen College (, ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete. Today, it is the fourth wealthiest college, with a financial endowment of £332.1 million as of 2019 and one of the s ...

. G. L. Harriss first came up to read Modern History at Magdalen College, Oxford as an undergraduate in 1943 where he was tutored by

K. B. McFarlane Kenneth Bruce McFarlane, FBA (18 October 1903 – 16 July 1966) was one of the 20th century's most influential historians of late medieval England. Life McFarlane was born on 18 October 1903, the only child of A. McFarlane, OBE. His father was ...

. After two years in the Royal Navy from 1944 to 1946, he returned to complete his degree and went on to research for a D.Phil. under the supervision of

C. A. J. Armstrong Charles Arthur John Armstrong (born 1909), known as John Armstrong, was a leading post-war English historian, known for his studies of the First Battle of St Albans and the medieval Duchy of Burgundy. Early life and discovery of the Mancini ...

, being elected to a Senior Demyship of Magdalen, which he held from 1950 to 1952. Harriss' first academic post was as an assistant lecturer in the University of Manchester from 1955 to 1956, before he was appointed a lecturer and later Reader in Medieval History in the University of Durham from 1956 to 1967. In 1967, Harriss succeeded McFarlane, who had died suddenly the previous year, as Fellow and Tutor in Modern History of Magdalen College, also serving as College Librarian from 1968 to 1983. From 1990 to 1992, Harriss was Reader in Medieval History in the University of Oxford. Upon his retirement in 1992 he was elected an Emeritus Fellow of Magdalen College. In 1986, G. L. Harriss was elected a

Fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: # Fellows – scholars resident in the United Kingdom # C ...

. ''Rulers and Ruled in Late Medieval England. Essays presented to Gerald Harriss'' (Hambledon, 1995), a Festschrift in his honour, edited by two of his former research students, Rowena E. Archer and Simon Walker, was published in 1995. Harriss' important contributions to medieval history were based upon his research into the growing financial demands and prerogatives of late medieval English government, which resulted in a series of important articles such as "Fictitious Loans", Ec.HR, 2nd series, 8 (1955-6), pp. 187–99; "Preference at the Medieval Exchequer", BIHR, 30 (1957), pp. 17–40; and "Aids, Loans and Benevolences", ''Historical Journal'', 6 (1963), pp. 1–19. In his magnum opus, ''King, Parliament and Public Finance in Medieval England to 1369'' (Oxford, 1975), Harriss placed the parliamentary-controlled system of royal finance in the context of the emergence of the crown as a corporate body separate from the person of the king, and its role in the development of English political society and the constitution. Harriss later benefited from the work of Simon Walker, particularly in relation to the retinue of

John of Gaunt John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster (6 March 1340 – 3 February 1399) was an English royal prince, military leader, and statesman. He was the fourth son (third to survive infancy as William of Hatfield died shortly after birth) of King Edward ...

and the development of private forms of political authority alongside that of the crown. As well as succeeding McFarlane at Magdalen, Harriss also edited a posthumous collection of McFarlane's essays, ''Lancastrian Kings and Lollard Knights'', in 1972. In 1997, Harriss edited ''Letters to Friends 1940-1966'', a collection of McFarlane's correspondence with several of his distinguished students, including

R. R. Davies Sir Robert Rees Davies, (6 August 1938 – 16 May 2005) was a Welsh historian. Biography Davies was born in Merionethshire, and educated at Bala Grammar School. He was bilingual in Welsh and English. He received a First in his degree from Uni ...

, Karl Leyser, Alan Bennett, and Harriss himself, published privately by Magdalen College.

Select publications

*''King, Parliament and Public Finance in Medieval England to 1369'', 1975 *''Henry V: The Practice of Kingship'' (ed.), 1985 *''Cardinal Beaufort. A Study in Lancastrian Ascendency and Decline'', 1988 *'Political Society and the Growth of Government in Late Medieval England', (journal article) 1993
''Shaping the Nation. England, 1360-1461''
2005

Related publication

*''Rulers and Ruled in Late Medieval England. Essays presented to Gerald Harris'', 1995

References

External links

* . 1925 births 2014 deaths English historians Fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford Fellows of the British Academy Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford Academics of Durham University {{UK-historian-stub