William Stubbs

William Stubbs (born June 21, 1825, Knaresborough, Yorkshire, Eng.—died April 22, 1901, Cuddesdon, near Oxford) was an influential English historian who founded the systematic study of English medieval constitutional history.

Stubbs was regius professor of history at the University of Oxford (1866–84), bishop of Chester (1884–88), and bishop of Oxford (1888–1901). His reputation in his day rested primarily on a massive study of historical synthesis, The Constitutional History of England in its Origin and Development, 3 vol. (1873–78), which traces the development of English institutions from the Teutonic invasion of Britain until 1485. This work has been much criticized, however, and Stubbs’s best work is now held to be the 19 volumes of editions of medieval English chronicles that, between 1864 and 1889, he contributed to the Rolls series. His other publications include Select Charters . . . of English Constitutional History from the Earliest Times to the Reign of Edward the First (1870), which quickly established itself as a textbook.