Documents for "Historians, British: Biographies":

• Acton, John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, 1st Baron 1834-1902, English historian, b. Naples; grandson of Sir John Francis Edward Acton and of Emmerich Joseph, duc de Dalberg. Denied entrance into Cambridge because of his Roman Catholicism, he...

• Baeda see Bede, Saint.

• Bede, Saint or Baeda , 673?-735, English historian, a Benedictine monk, called the Venerable Bede. He spent his whole life at the monasteries of Wearmouth (at Sunderland) and Jarrow and became probably the most learned...

• Boece Roman philosopher: see Boethius.

• Boece, Hector 1465?-1536?, Scottish historian. He studied at the Univ. of Paris, where he knew Erasmus, and in 1498 he went to Aberdeen as the first principal of the new university. The most important of his...

• Buckle, Henry Thomas 1821-62, English historian. Contemptuous of the historical writing of his day, with its intense concern with politics, wars, and heroes, Buckle undertook the ambitious plan of writing a history of...

• Creighton, Mandell 1843-1901, British historian and churchman. He was professor of ecclesiastical history at Cambridge from 1884 until his appointment (1891) as bishop of Peterborough. In 1896 he was made bishop of...

• Dacre of Glanton, Baron see Trevor-Roper, Hugh Redwald.

• Eadmer or Edmer , d. 1124?, English monk and historian. He was in the monastery of Christ Church, Canterbury, when Anselm became archbishop of Canterbury, and his biography of St. Anselm is the basic one. Eadmer's Historiae novorum is a history of England from 1066 to 1122 from the ecclesiastical point of view and is excellent of its kind. He was elected archbishop of St. Andrews, but was never consecrated because the Scots...

• Edmer see Eadmer.

• Esher, Reginald Baliol Brett, 2d Viscount 1852-1930, English historian and government official. After sitting in Parliament (1880-85) as a Liberal, he thereafter preferred to exercise his influence from behind the scenes and withdrew from...

• Froude, James Anthony 1818-94, English historian. Educated at Oxford, he took deacon's orders after coming under the influence of the Oxford movement , but he later abandoned the path of Newman and became a skeptic. His record of this course in The Nemesis of Faith led to his resignation from an Oxford fellowship. He became an intimate friend of Thomas Carlyle , whom he greatly admired, and devoted himself to writing and lecturing. In 1872-73 he came to the United States and lectured on Irish questions, and later traveled in many parts of the British...

• Fuller, Thomas 1608-61, English clergyman and author. He was an able preacher and a noted wit. He adhered to the royalist cause during the civil war and the Commonwealth and served briefly as a royal chaplain. He...

• Gerald of Wales see Giraldus Cambrensis.

• Gibbon, Edward 1737-94, English historian, author of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. His childhood was sickly, and he had little formal education but read enormously and omnivorously. He went at the age of 15 to Oxford, but was forced to leave because of his conversion to Roman...

• Giraldus Cambrensis c.1146-1223, Norman-Welsh churchman and historian, also called Gerald of Wales and Gerald de Barri. He was associated (from 1184) with the king and court of England. His historical works include...

• Greville, Charles Cavendish Fulke 1794-1865, English diarist. As clerk of the Council in Ordinary (1821-59), he was closely associated with Wellington, Palmerston, and other political leaders of the reigns of George IV, William...

• Hall, Edward 1499?-1547, English chronicler. He wrote The Union of the Noble and Ilustre Famelies of Lancastre and York (1548), usually called Hall's Chronicle. A glorification of the Tudors, it is important...

• Hart, Basil Henry Liddell see Liddell Hart, Basil Henry.

• Jocelin de Brakelond fl. 1200, English chronicler, a monk of Bury St. Edmunds. His chronicle of St. Edmund's Abbey, covering the years 1173-1202, is written in a simple, vigorous style and is remarkable for its vivid...

• Liddell Hart, Sir Basil Henry 1895-1970, English author and military strategist, b. Paris. His education at Cambridge was interrupted by World War I, in which he served (1914-18) and was twice wounded. Retiring from the army...

• Longford, Elizabeth 1906-2002, British author. Born Elizabeth Harman, she married (1931) Frank Pakenham, later (1961) earl of Longford. She was educated at Oxford, lectured for the Workers Education Association...

• Macaulay, Thomas Babington, 1st Baron 1800-1859, English historian and author, b. Leicestershire, educated at Cambridge. After the success of his essay on Milton in the Edinburgh Review (Aug., 1825), he contributed regularly to that journal. He was called to the bar in 1826 and, elected to Parliament in 1830, distinguished himself as a Whig orator. In India, 1834-38, as a member...

• Maine, Sir Henry James Sumner 1822-88, English jurist and historian, educated at Cambridge. A pioneer in the historical and comparative study of institutions, he viewed the history of laws as the most certain way of studying...

• Major, John 1469-1550, Scottish theologian and historian. He studied and taught at the Univ. of Paris. His works, all in Latin, were published there. He was one of the most famous teachers of scholastic...

• Matthew of Paris or Matthew Paris, d. 1259, English historian, a monk of St. Albans. He became the historiographer of the convent after the death (c.1236) of Roger of Wendover. The first part of his Chronica majora [great chronicle], a history of the world, is largely a reworked version of Wendover's chronicle. However, the second part, from 1235 to 1259, is original and valuable because its material was...

• Matthew Paris see Matthew of Paris.

• M'Carthy, Justin 1830-1912, Irish historian, politician, and novelist. After a long career in journalism, he entered the British Parliament in 1879, advocating home rule for Ireland. He was at first a supporter of,...

• Namier, Sir Lewis Bernstein 1888-1960, English historian, b. Poland. He attended the London School of Economics and Oxford and became professor at the Univ. of Manchester in 1931, teaching there until 1953. His greatest fame...

• Nicolson, Sir Harold 1886-1968, English biographer, historian, and diplomat, b. Tehran, Iran. Educated at Oxford, he entered the foreign office in 1909, and, until his resignation 20 years later, he represented the...

• Oman, Sir Charles William Chadwick 1860-1946, British historian, b. India, educated at Oxford under William Stubbs. He was a foremost military historian; his most notable works are A History of the Art of War in the Middle Ages (1898,...

• Palgrave, Sir Francis 1788-1861, English historian. His antiquarian interests led him to edit with scrupulous accuracy and to publish a number of historical records, such as the Rotuli Curiae Regis (1835), and to stress their importance as materials for historical writing. He was knighted in 1832, and he was from 1838 the official head of the Public Record Office. He wrote in the medieval...

• Paris, Matthew see Matthew of Paris.

• Plumb, Sir John Harold 1911-, British historian. Educated at the universities of Leicester (B.A., 1933) and Cambridge (Ph.D., 1936), he remained at Cambridge as a research fellow (1938-46), a fellow, and a member of the...

• Rawlinson, George 1812-1902, English Orientalist and historian, educated at Oxford. He is known for his long, authoritative, and still useful histories of the ancient world. His most famous history is that of The Five...

• Richard of Devizes fl. late 12th cent., English chronicler and monk. He wrote a lively Chronicon de rebus gestis Ricardi primi [chronicle of the deeds of Richard I], a valuable historical source having information not...

• Robertson, William 1721-93, Scottish churchman and historian. As moderator (1762-80) of the general assembly of the Church of Scotland, he led the moderate party and enforced the right of the state to make clerical...

• Roger of Hoveden d. 1201; English chronicler. His chronicle, covering the years from 732 to 1201, is an original source only for the years through which he lived. His life as a member of the household of Henry II...

• Roger of Wendover d. c.1236, English chronicler, a monk of St. Albans. As historiographer of St. Albans, he began the Flores historiarum (see Matthew of Westminster ), a general chronicle starting with the creation. He drew the material from 1192 to 1201 from Roger of Hoveden , but that from 1201 to 1235 is original. His work contains many fantastic and distorted stories and judgments hostile to King John. He is in large part responsible for the negative picture of John...

• Roscoe, William 1753-1831, English historian and author. He was called to the bar in 1774, and later, as a member of Parliament, fought against the slave trade (1806). The Life of Lorenzo de' Medici (1795), his principal...

• Speed, John 1552?-1629, English historian and cartographer. He abandoned his trade as a tailor to engage in mapmaking. Many of his maps of parts of England and Wales were published in The Theatre of the Empire...

• Stow, John 1525?-1605, English chronicler and antiquarian. He was a tailor in his youth, but after 1560 he came under the patronage of Archbishop Matthew Parker, whose Society of Antiquaries he joined, and...

• Strachey, William 1572-1621, English colonial historian; educated at Cambridge. In 1609 he sailed to Virginia with Sir Thomas Gates. A storm wrecked his ship in the Bermudas, and the party remained there for nearly a year. A letter written by Strachey describing this experience was one of several versions of the shipwreck, one...

• Stubbs, William 1825-1901, English historian, educated at Oxford. Ordained in 1850, he was a professor of modern history at Oxford until in 1884 he was made bishop of Chester. Stubbs's critical studies of source...

• Syme, Sir Ronald 1903-89, British historian. After studying and teaching at Oxford, he served the British government in Belgrade and Ankara during World War II and taught (1942-45) at Istanbul Univ. An eminent...

• Tawney, Richard Henry 1880-1962, British economic historian, b. Calcutta (now Kolkata). He was professor at the Univ. of London from 1931 to 1949. A leading socialist, Tawney helped to formulate the economic and...

• Taylor, Alan John Percivale 1906-90, English historian, primarily interested in diplomatic and Central European history. Educated at Oxford, he became a fellow of Magdalen College in 1938. He appeared frequently on British...

• Tout, Thomas Frederick 1855-1929, English historian. Educated at Oxford, he taught at the Univ. of Manchester from 1890 to 1925. Considered an outstanding authority on medieval history, Tout emphasized the importance of...

• Toynbee, Arnold Joseph 1889-1975, English historian; nephew of Arnold Toynbee. Educated at Oxford, he served in the British foreign office during World Wars I and II and was a delegate (1919) to the Paris Peace Conference. He was professor of Greek language and history...

• Trevor-Roper, Hugh Redwald, Baron Dacre of Glanton 1914-2003, British historian, b. Glanton, Northumberland. He was educated at Oxford, where he was Regius professor of modern history (1957-80). He was Master of Peterhouse College, Cambridge...

• Walpole, Sir Spencer 1839-1907, English historian. He held a number of minor public offices and served as private secretary in the home office to his father, Sir Spencer Horatio Walpole, whose biography he wrote...

• Wettekind Saxon historian: see Wittekind.

• Widukind Saxon historian: see Wittekind.

• William of Malmesbury c.1096-1143, English writer, monk of Malmesbury. His most important work is the Gesta regum Anglorum, a history of the kings of England from 449 to 1127, with its continuation, Historia novella...

• William of Newburgh 1136?-1198?, English chronicler, monk of Newburgh, Yorkshire. He wrote the Historia rerum Anglicarum, a history of England from 1066 to 1198. Its chief value lies in the commentary on contemporary...

• Wittekind   Widukind, or Wettekind , c.925-c.1004, Saxon historian, a monk, frequently called Wittekind of Corvey. He wrote the Res gestae Saxonicae, a history of the Saxons from earliest times to...

• Wood, Anthony 1632-95, English antiquary. His painstaking researches into the history of Oxford resulted in two great works, The History and Antiquities of the University of Oxford (in Latin, 1674; in English, tr. by him but not published until 1792-96), and Athenae Oxoniensis (1691-92; rev. and enl. ed. 1721) containing biographies of noted Oxford graduates. The second work included statements about the 1st earl of Clarendon that were adjudged libelous and for which he...