Dr Henry Summerson began a wide-ranging career as the historian attached to the Carlisle Archaeological Unit – his two-volume history of medieval Carlisle appeared in 1993. After several years working for English Heritage, he was for thirteen years medieval, then Tudor, Research Editor with the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, for which he has so far written 165 articles. When subsequently employed by the Oxford Holinshed Project he discovered some missing passages from the eleventh-century Vita Ædwardi Regis. He also maintains a specialised interest in crime and law enforcement in thirteenth and early fourteenth century England, and has published editions of the crown pleas of the 1238 Devon eyre and of the 1268 Wiltshire eyre.