{{Short description|English historian and medievalist (1928–2020)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2016}} {{Use British English|date=October 2016}}
{{infobox academic | image = Antonia Gransden.jpg | alt = Gransden, a white woman in early old age, in a study full of books. She has curled, ear-length hair. | caption = Photographed while at the [[University of Nottingham]] | birth_name = Antonia Morland | birth_date = {{birth date|1928|10|07|df=yes}} | death_date = {{death date and age|2020|01|18|1928|10|07|df=yes}} | discipline = History | sub_discipline = [[Medieval history]] | notable_works = ''Historical Writing in England'' (1982) | birth_place = [[Compton Dundon]], [[Somerset]], England | education = {{plainlist|*[[Dartington Hall]] *[[Somerville College, Oxford]] * [[University of London]]}} | workplaces = {{plainlist|*[[British Museum]] * [[University of Nottingham]]}} | spouse = {{marriage|[[K. W. Gransden]]|1957|1977|end=div}} | death_place = [[Keinton Mandeville]], Somerset }}
'''Antonia Gransden''' ({{née|'''Morland'''}}; 7 October 1928 – 18 January 2020), English [[historian]] and [[medievalist]], was [[Reader (academic rank)|Reader]] in [[Medieval History]] at the [[University of Nottingham]]. She was author of works in medieval [[historiography]], including the massive two-volume study ''Historical Writing in England'', covering a thousand years of historical writing from the 6th to the 16th century.<ref name=Gobit>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/feb/16/antonia-gransden-obituary |title=Antonia Gransden obituary |author=James Clark |date=16 Feb 2020 |archive-date=24 February 2023 |access-date=17 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230224163547/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/feb/16/antonia-gransden-obituary |url-status=live }}</ref>
Work at the British Museum fuelled Gransden's fascination with [[Bury St Edmunds Abbey]]. She went on to edit the records of the abbey, resulting in a two-volume ''History of the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds'', which she completed aged 86.
==Life== Gransden was born Antonia Morland in [[Compton Dundon]], Somerset.<ref name = ODNB>{{cite ODNB|title = Gransden [née Morland], Antonia (1928–2020), historian|last = Given-Wilson|first = C.|date = 2024|doi = 10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.90000381939}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Antonia Gransden, 91: Medievalist, watercolourist and friend of EM Forster |url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/antonia-gransden-91-medievalist-watercolourist-and-friend-of-em-forster-tpgwjz369 |access-date=10 October 2020 |newspaper=The Times |date=14 March 2020}}</ref> Her father was a director of [[Morlands]] clothing company in [[Glastonbury]], Somerset.<ref name=Gobit /> Educated at [[Dartington Hall]] and [[Somerville College, Oxford]], she gained a first class degree and studied for a PhD, which she went on to earn from the [[University of London]].<ref name = ODNB/> She spent a decade as assistant keeper in the British Museum reading room from 1952, before joining Nottingham University as an assistant lecturer in 1964.<ref name=Gobit /> She married [[K. W. Gransden|Ken Gransden]] in 1957 and the couple had two daughters. However, the marriage was dissolved in 1977.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-k-w-gransden-1169495.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220507/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-k-w-gransden-1169495.html |archive-date=7 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|first=Penelope|last=Murray|title=Obituary: K. W. Gransden|newspaper=The Independent|date=3 August 1998}}</ref> She retired from Nottingham University in 1989.<ref name=Gobit />
Gransden was a long-standing member of the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]], and an advocate for women's rights to education, equal pay and opportunities. She died from bronchopneumonia at a care home in [[Keinton Mandeville]], Somerset, on 18 January 2020 at the age of 91.<ref name=Gobit/><ref name = ODNB/> At the time of her death her "magisterial" two volumes on ''Historical Writing in England'' remained unsurpassed.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=Studies in the Age of Chaucer|title=Medieval Historical Writing: Britain and Ireland, 500–1500 ed. by Jennifer Jahner, Emily Steiner, and Elizabeth M. Tyler (review) |first=Helen|last=Fulton|volume=42|date=2020|pages=413–7|doi=10.1353/sac.2020.0024 }}</ref>
==Select bibliography== {{Scholia|author}} * {{citation |last=Gransden |first=Antonia Morland |author-link=Antonia Gransden |display-authors=0 |title=A Critical Edition of the Bury St Edmunds Chronicle in Arundel MS 30 (College of Arms) |location=London |publisher=University of London |date=1956 }} * (ed.) {{citation |editor-last=Gransden |editor-first=Antonia Morland |editor-link=Antonia Gransden |display-editors=0 |title=The Letter-Book of William of Hoo, Sacrist of Bury St. Edmunds, 1280–1294 |location=Ipswich |publisher=[[Suffolk Records Society]] |date=1963 |series=''Publications'', Vol. 5 }} * (ed. & trans.) {{citation |editor-last=Gransden |editor-first=Antonia Morland |editor-link=Antonia Gransden |display-editors=0 |title=The Chronicle of Bury St Edmunds 1212–1301 |location=London |publisher=Thomas Nelson & Sons |date=1964 |series=''Nelson's Medieval Texts'' }} * (ed.) {{citation |editor-last=Gransden |editor-first=Antonia Morland |editor-link=Antonia Gransden |display-editors=0 |title=Customary of the Benedictine Abbey of Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk<!--full 1st ed. title--> |date=1970 |series=Vol. 99 |publisher=[[Henry Bradshaw Society]] |location=London }}. * {{citation |last=Gransden |first=Antonia Morland |author-link=Antonia Gransden |display-authors=0 |title=Historical Writing in England ''c.'' 550 to ''c.'' 1307 |location=London |publisher=Routledge and Kegan Paul |date=1974 }} * {{citation |last=Gransden |first=Antonia Morland |author-link=Antonia Gransden |display-authors=0 |title=Historical Writing in England ii<!--sic--> ''c.'' 1307 to the Early Sixteenth Century |location=[[Ithaca, New York|Ithaca]] |publisher=Cornell University Press |date=1982 }} * {{citation |last=Gransden |first=Antonia Morland |author-link=Antonia Gransden |display-authors=0 |title=Legends, Traditions, and History in Medieval England |location=London |publisher=Hambledon Press |date=1992 }} * {{citation |last=Gransden |first=Antonia Morland |author-link=Antonia Gransden |display-authors=0 |title= A History of the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds, 1182–1256: Samson of Tottington to Edmund of Walpole |location=Woodbridge |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |date=2007 |series=Studies in the History of Medieval Religion |volume=31 |isbn=9781843833246 }} * {{citation |last=Gransden |first=Antonia Morland |author-link=Antonia Gransden |display-authors=0 |title=A History of the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds, 1257–1301: Simon of Luton and John of Northwold |location=Woodbridge |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |date=2015 |series=Studies in the History of Medieval Religion |volume=42 |isbn=9781783270262 }} * (ed.) {{citation |editor-last=Gransden |editor-first=Antonia Morland |editor-link=Antonia Gransden |display-editors=0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0kYHEAAAQBAJ |title=Bury St Edmunds: Medieval Art, Architecture, Archaeology, and Economy |publisher=Routledge |location=Abingdon |date=2020 |isbn=978-1-351-57288-0 }}
==References== {{reflist|30em}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gransden, Antonia}} [[Category:1928 births]] [[Category:2020 deaths]] [[Category:Academics of the University of Nottingham]] [[Category:Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford]] [[Category:English medievalists]] [[Category:British women medievalists]] [[Category:20th-century English historians]] [[Category:21st-century English historians]] [[Category:English women historians]] [[Category:Alumni of the University of London]] [[Category:Deaths from pneumonia in England]] [[Category:Deaths from bronchopneumonia]]