Herbert Edward John Cowdrey, published under H. E. J. Cowdrey, known as John Cowdrey, was a British historian of the Middle Ages and a chaplain in the Church of England. He was elected priest of St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford, in 1956. He resigned the chaplaincy in 1976, but continued to teach medieval history there until 1994, when he retired and was elected emeritus fellow. He was also a Fellow of the British Academy.