[4] He subsequently became Director of York’s Centre for Medieval Studies (1998–2001 and 2002–2003), Head of the Department of History (2001, 2003–2007), and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities from 2009 until taking early retirement in 2017.

[9] One of his last publications, his contribution to the Yale English Monarchs series on Edward III, has been described as “a first rate example of historical investigation",[10]: 60  and an "exceptionally complex project that had defeated several earlier scholars".

July 2020 brought publication of Monarchy, State, and Political Culture, a Festschrift compiled in his honour by his colleagues Gwilym Dodd and Craig Taylor.

Dodd and Taylor also endowed the Mark Ormrod Prize, awarded annually to the best doctoral dissertation, on any medieval topic, at the University of York.

[1] He died of bowel cancer aged 62 on 2 August 2020; the proofs for his final monograph, Winner and Waster, were delivered to his publisher 10 days previously.