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Margaret Evelyn Buxton (; 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. During her career, she lectured at both the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge.
She was awarded a scholarship to study history at the University of Oxford and matriculated into Lady Margaret Hall in 1951. In her spare time, she studied the clarinet under Jack Brymer in addition to playing the piano. She graduated Bachelor of Arts (BA), later promoted to Master of Arts (MA Oxon) as per tradition. She later continued her studies as a postgraduate. Her Doctoral advisor was K. B. McFarlane, described by The Independent as "the pre-eminent authority on 15th century England, but notorious as a woman-hater". She completed a Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) degree in 1962.
In 1971, she married a diplomat. This meant she continued her academic career but, for the most part, without any attachment to a university. In the 1980s, they lived in Holywood, County Down, while her husband served as Under-Secretary for Northern Ireland. From 1984 to 1985, she was a research fellow at Queen's University Belfast. During that time, she researched and wrote what has been described as her seminal work, England’s Iconoclasts.
She met her second husband, Paul Buxton, while undertaking research in the United States in the late 1960s. He was a diplomat and later a civil servant. They married in 1971. She became step-mother to his three children from a previous marriage, and together they had two children.
On 5 March 1987, she was elected Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (FSA). In 1994, she was elected Fellow of the British Academy (FBA). She was President of the Ecclesiastical History Society (2000–01). She was also a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (FRHistS).
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