Clarke, Maud Violet (1892–1935), historian, was born 7 May 1892 in Belfast, second child and only daughter of Richard James Clarke, rector of Trinity church, Belfast, and Anne Nugent Clarke (née Jessop), of Mount Jessop, Co. Longford. In 1903 the family moved to Coole Glebe, Carnmoney, Co. Antrim, where her father had accepted a living. Educated at a school in Belfast, she was brought up in a scholarly atmosphere, her father teaching her Greek and Latin at home. In 1905 she attended Alexandra College, Dublin, and in 1910 she matriculated at QUB, where she took first-class honours in history. In 1912 she won the first scholarship, by examination, for Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, where she graduated with a first in modern history (1915). From 1916 to 1919 she acted in place of Professor Frederick Powicke at QUB, after which she returned to Oxford, where she was engaged as history tutor at Somerville College. In 1922 she became a fellow of the college, and in 1933 its vice-president.
Her earliest publication, a paper on the Irish parliament in the reign of Edward II, was read to the Royal Historical Society (December 1925), and was followed by her first book, The medieval city (1926). At this time she began her research into the life of Richard II (qv), which resulted in her article ‘The Lancastrian faction and the wonderful parliament’, read to the International Historical Congress at Oslo (1928). In association with V. H. Galbraith, she published (1930) an edition of the Dielacres Chronicle which was the subject of a leading article in The Times, due to their introductory essay, which reinterpreted the deposition of Richard II. This period coincided with Clarke's developing interest in iconography, of which her highly acclaimed article on the Wilton diptych (Burlington Magazine, 1931) was a by-product, as was her study of Irish high crosses. After working with N. Denholm Young on an edition of the Kirkstall Chronicle, and a paper on ‘Forfeitures and treason in 1388’, she began her research on her most important work, a study of the ‘Modus tenendi parliamentum’, which was published posthumously under the title Medieval representation and consent (1936). Despite being diagnosed as having cancer, Clarke still attended to many of her duties in Oxford between periods of convalescence in Carnmoney, and produced an article ‘The origin of impeachment’ (1934); however, she was unable to produce an intended volume on the fourteenth century for the Oxford history of England. She died 17 November 1935 in Carnmoney.