Elisabeth Maria Cornelia van Houts, Lady Baker, (born 1952) is a Dutch-born British historian specializing in medieval European history. Van Houts was born in

Zaandam Zaandam () is a city in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland, Netherlands. It is the main city of the municipality of Zaanstad and received City rights in the Netherlands, city rights in 1811. It is located on the river Zaan ...

in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. She married historian Sir John Baker in 2010. She is an honorary professor of medieval European history in the Faculty of History and a Fellow of

Emmanuel College, Cambridge Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican mo ...

. Van Houts was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Historical Society The Royal Historical Society (RHS), founded in 1868, is a learned society of the United Kingdom which advances scholarly studies of history. Origins The society was founded and received its royal charter in 1868. Until 1872 it was known as the H ...

in 1983. She has published and lectured on Anglo-Norman history, medieval historiography and literature and the history of gender in the Middle Ages. She has been an expert panellist on the radio programme '' In Our Time'' for the

12th-century Renaissance The Renaissance of the 12th century was a period of many changes at the outset of the High Middle Ages. It included social, political and economic transformations, and an intellectual revitalization of Western Europe with strong philosophical and ...

and the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

. She was elected a

Fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (post-nominal letters FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: # Fellows – scholars resident in t ...

in 2024.

Selected publications

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Houts, Elisabeth van 1952 births Living people 20th-century Dutch historians Dutch women historians 21st-century British historians British women historians British gender studies academics Fellows of Emmanuel College, Cambridge People from Zaanstad University of Groningen alumni Dutch expatriates in England Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge Fellows of the British Academy Fellows of the Royal Historical Society Wives of knights