Margaret Evelyn Buxton CBE FSA FRHistS FBA (née Bridges; 9 October 1932 – 22 November 2014), known by her first married name Margaret Aston, was a British historian and academic specialising in the Late Medieval Period and ecclesiastical history.
Aston was born on 9 October 1932 to Edward Bridges, a senior civil servant, and his wife Monica (née Farrer).
[1] Her paternal grandfather was Robert Bridges, a Poet Laureate, and a great-grandfather was Alfred Waterhouse, an architect.
[1] She was awarded a scholarship to study history at the University of Oxford and matriculated into Lady Margaret Hall in 1951.
From 1966 to 1969, she was a lecturer at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.[2] Her first book, a biography of Archbishop Thomas Arundel, was published in 1967.
[1] Her next book, The Fifteenth Century: The Prospect of Europe, was written during a residency at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. and published in 1968.
[2] They had a difficult marriage, due in part because Trevor was suffering from bipolar disorder, and separated after four years.
[1] In the 2013 Queen's Birthday Honours, Aston was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) 'for services to Historical Scholarship'.