Welcome to Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
- Over 63,000 biographies, 75 million words, 12,000 portraits of significant, influential or notorious figures who shaped British history – perform advanced search
- Life of the day now available by email or RSS feed.
- Learn about our editors and read the Letter from the General Editor Professor Sir David Cannadine.
What's new
What’s New: September 2024
This month’s update, introduced by David Cannadine, reviews the ODNB on its 20th anniversary. First published in September 2004, the ODNB has since added 8000 biographies, and notably completed 20 annual releases of recent lives, which now cover 2001 to 2020, creating an important national record.
Featured
Rich [née Boyle], Mary, countess of Warwick
Born at Youghal, Co. Cork, in November 1624, the thirteenth child of an Irish nobleman, she defied her father by rejecting the marriage he had arranged for her. Marriage to the future earl of Warwick took her to Leigh, Essex, where after a religious conversion experience ‘she transformed herself into a paragon of piety’.
