author
Charles Plummer
1851–1927
An Oxford scholar and cleric with a gift for medieval history, this writer is best remembered for careful editions of major historical texts and for bringing Anglo-Saxon and Irish sources to a wider readership. His work helped shape how later historians talked about late medieval England.
1 Audiobook
The Life and Times of Alfred the Great Being the Ford lectures for 1901
by Charles Plummer
About the author
Born in 1851, he spent most of his academic life at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he studied, later became a fellow and chaplain, and remained associated with the college for decades. He was an English historian and cleric whose scholarship centered on medieval Britain and Ireland, especially Anglo-Saxon history and Celtic studies.
He is often remembered for editing The Governance of England by Sir John Fortescue and for introducing the term "bastard feudalism," a phrase that became influential in later historical writing. He also produced respected editions of important medieval works, including texts connected with Bede and collections of Irish saints' lives.
Elected a Fellow of the British Academy late in life, he built a reputation less through public fame than through exacting, source-based scholarship. His books and editions remain part of the long scholarly tradition that made difficult medieval material accessible to later readers and students.