The offices of Lord Lieutenant and High Sheriff have long and distinguished histories both at the national and the local levels. This book, commissioned to mark the year 2000, provides a biographical account of the two offices in the historic county of Yorkshire and its modern administrative divisions from the Norman Conquest to the beginning of the third Millennium. It gives historical introductions to the origins and development of the two offices and biographical summaries of all known High Sheriffs and Lord Lieutenants of Yorkshire. It yields a remarkable record of the lives, careers and achievements of the men and women who have served the county in these offices, and reveals much of the social, political and cultural history of Yorkshire from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. It represents a fruitful collaboration between current and former Lord Lieutenants and High Sheriffs, who funded the project, and the academic endeavours of members of the Department of History at the University of York, who researched and wrote the book.
A specialist in the political structures and ideas of later medieval England, William Mark Ormrod, DPhil (Oxon), FSA, FRHistS, was a Professor in the Department of History and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of York. He was a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and of the Society of Antiquaries, served on a number of AHRC committees, was a Trustee of the Richard III and Yorkist History Trust, a Councillor of the Pipe Roll Society, and a former Councillor of the Royal Historical Society.
Chair of the British Academy English Episcopal Acta Project and a member of the Comitato Scientifico of the Datini Institute, Prato, Mark was a former general editor of York Medieval Press, a member of the editorial board of the Yorkshire Archaeological Journal and a co-editor of Fourteenth-Century England.