Peter R. Coss is a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 historian

Historian

A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...

, specialising on the history of the English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 medieval

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

 gentry

Gentry

Gentry denotes "well-born and well-bred people" of high social class, especially in the past....

. He is currently Professor of Medieval History at the School of History and Archeology at Cardiff University

Cardiff University

Cardiff University is a leading research university located in the Cathays Park area of Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom. It received its Royal charter in 1883 and is a member of the Russell Group of Universities. The university is consistently recognised as providing high quality research-based...

, Wales

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

. His research interests also include 12th to 15th century English social history and Italian history from the same period, as well as visual history/social display and literature and history. As of 2008, he is working on a comparative project between the English gentry and the nobility of Tuscany

Tuscany

Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....

, and another on the foundations of gentry culture. Coss studied under Rodney Hilton

Rodney Hilton

Rodney Howard Hilton, , was an English Marxist historian of the late medieval period and the transition from feudalism to capitalism. He was born in Manchester and studied at Balliol College Oxford University and was a member of the Communist Party Historians Group before leaving the party in 1956...

. He is a member of the historical journal Past & Present

Past & Present

Past & Present is a British historical academic journal, which was a leading force in the development of social history. It was founded in 1952 by a combination of Marxist and non-Marxist historians. The Marxist historians included members of the Communist Party Historians Group, including E. P...

, and also a former member of the council of the Royal Historical Society

Royal Historical Society

The Royal Historical Society was founded in 1868. The premier society in the United Kingdom which promotes and defends the scholarly study of the past, it is based at University College London...

.

Select publications

• The Origins of the English Gentry. Past and Present Publications. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press (2003). ISBN 052182673X

• With Maurice Keen
  Maurice Keen
  Maurice Hugh Keen is a British historian specialising in the Middle Ages. He is an Emeritus Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford, where he lectured in Medieval history from 1961-2000.In 1984 he won the Wolfson History Prize for his book Chivalry....
  
  (eds.) Heraldry, Pageantry and Social Display in Medieval England. Woodbridge, Boydell (2002). ISBN 9781843830368

• The Lady in Medieval England, 1000-1500. Stroud, Sutton (1998). ISBN 0750908025

• The Knight in Medieval England. Woodbridge, Boydell (1993). ISBN 0750900598

• Lordship. Knighthood and Locality. Past and Present Publications. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. (1991) ISBN 0521402964