John Philipps Kenyon

John Philipps Kenyon (born June 18, 1927 in Sheffield , † January 6, 1996 in Norwich ) was a British historian.

Kenyon graduated from the University of Sheffield in 1948 and received his doctorate in 1954 with John H. Plumb at Cambridge University . He was there from 1954 to 1962 Fellow of Christ's College and Lecturer in Cambridge, taught from 1962 to 1981 at the University of Hull (GF Grant Professor) and then at the University of St Andrews . From 1987 to 1994 he was Elizabeth Hall Distinguished Professor of British Early Modern History at the University of Kansas . In retirement he returned to England and did research at the University of East Anglia. At his death he was close to completing the new edition of the Oxford Illustrated History of the English Civil Wars .

Kenyon was a leading expert on 17th century British history (period of the Stuart kings, papist conspiracy , English civil war) in his day. He attracted attention as early as 1958 with the publication of both his book on the Kings in the House of Stuart and his biography of Robert Spencer, 2nd Earl of Sunderland . He also wrote a book on British historians for the general public (History Men, 1984) and was a regular reviewer of The Observer . In the obituary in The Independent, he was described as a rough-skinned, Falstaff-style personality who was prone to sarcastic comments and drastic public criticism (but this did not necessarily apply to his reviews or his dealings with his students and colleagues).

He was a Fellow of the British Academy (1981). In 1975/76 he was Ford's Lecturer in English History at Oxford University.

In 1962 he married Angela Ewert (nee Venables), with whom he had a son, two daughters and a stepdaughter.

Fonts

• Robert Spencer, Earl of Sunderland, Longmans Green 1958, reprint Gregg Revivals 1992
• The Stuarts. A study in english kinship, BT Batsford 1958
• Editor: Pepys Diary, Batsford 1963
• The Stuart Constitution, Cambridge University Press 1966
• The Popish Plot, St. Martin's Press 1972, Phoenix Plot
• Revolution Principles: The Politics Of Party 1689–1720, Cambridge UP 1977, 2010
• Stuart England, Penguin (Penguin History of England), 1978
• The History Men, University of Pittsburgh Press 1984
• The Civil Wars of England, Knopf 1988, Orion 1996
• with Jane Ohlmeyer, (Ed.): The Civil Wars. A Military History of England, Scotland, and Ireland 1638-1660. Oxford University Press, Oxford et al. 1998, ISBN 0-19-866222-X .

Web links

• Neil McKendrick, obituary in The Independent, Jan. 10, 1996