University of Notre Dame, PhD '05

BIOGRAPHY

Jonathan Lyon's research and teaching focus on the political and social history of Germany, Austria, and the Holy Roman Empire in the medieval period, particularly the eleventh through thirteenth centuries. He has held fellowships from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (2017–18 University of Heidelberg, Germany) the Austrian Science Fund (2013–14 FWF Lise Meitner Programme #1534-G18, University of Vienna), the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the J. William Fulbright Program, and the Dolores Zohrab Liebmann Foundation. His first book, Princely Brothers and Sisters: The Sibling Bond in German Politics, 1100–1250 (Cornell, 2013), won the 2017 John Nicholas Brown Prize for the best first book from the Medieval Academy of America. In it, he argues that sibling relationships played a pivotal role in shaping political dynamics both inside individual noble families and at the courts of the German kings and emperors. His recently completed book, Corruption, Protection and Justice in Medieval Europe: A Thousand-Year History(Cambridge University Press, 2022), argues that corrupt practices of protection and justice were a persistent problem at the local level in Europe throughout the period from 750 to 1800. He has also published a volume of translated Latin sources entitled Noble Society: Five Lives from Twelfth-Century Germany (Manchester, 2017). His current book projects include a general introduction to the history of the medieval Holy Roman Empire and a history of the abbesses of Quedlinburg from the twelfth to the sixteenth century. He teaches introductory courses on medieval European history and more specialized courses on the Holy Roman Empire, premodern political cultures, and European gender history.