Christopher Allmand

Christopher Allmand (1936–2022) was a British medieval historian best known for his scholarship on the Hundred Years’ War, Henry V and the English occupation of France in the fifteenth century. Educated at Oriel College, Oxford, he completed doctoral research on Lancastrian Normandy under the medievalist E. F. Jacob. After teaching at Bangor University, he joined the University of Liverpool in 1967, eventually becoming Professor of Medieval History and head of the History Department. Allmand belonged to an influential generation of British historians who transformed the study of later medieval France. Rather than treating medieval warfare simply as a succession of campaigns and battles, he examined its wider effects on government, taxation, towns, the Church and civilian society.

Among Allmand's most important books is Lancastrian Normandy, 1415–1450: The History of a Medieval Occupation, a detailed study of English government in Normandy following Henry V's conquest of the duchy. His widely read The Hundred Years War: England and France at War c.1300–c.1450 placed the Anglo-French conflict within its broader political, economic and social setting and became one of the standard introductions to the subject. His substantial biography Henry V (1992) examined the king not only as the victor of Agincourt, but as a ruler, administrator and strategist whose ambitions profoundly affected both England and France. Later works included studies of medieval military thought and the influence of the Roman writer Vegetius, demonstrating Allmand's broader interest in how medieval Europeans understood war, military organisation and the obligations of rulers. His scholarship remains particularly important for understanding Lancastrian France and the final phases of the Hundred Years' War.