[1] He was educated at Owen's School in Islington[2] and University College London, where he obtained a first class honours degree.
He planned to stand for Parliament but his adoption as a parliamentary candidate was prevented by the outbreak of the Second World War.
[1] In 1946 he was appointed a lecturer at London University and held a joint seminar on Tudor history with J. E. Neale at the Institute of Historical Research.
In 1962 he succeeded M. A. Thomson as Astor Professor of English History at the University of London, which he held until 1979.
[1] Hurstfield married Elizabeth Valmai Walters and they had one son and one daughter.