G. L. Harriss

Gerald Leslie Harriss (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.

Career 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. 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, 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.

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, 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