Pierre Théophile Victorien Marie Chaplais (8 July 1920 – 26 November 2006) was a French historian. He was

Reader A reader is a person who reads. It may also refer to: Computing and technology * Adobe Reader (now Adobe Acrobat), a PDF reader * Bible Reader for Palm, a discontinued PDA application * A card reader, for extracting data from various forms of ...

in Diplomatic at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

from 1957 to 1987. Born in Châteaubriant,

Loire-Inférieure Loire-Atlantique (; br, Liger-Atlantel; before 1957: ''Loire-Inférieure'', br, Liger-Izelañ, link=no) is a department in Pays de la Loire on the west coast of France, named after the river Loire and the Atlantic Ocean. It had a population o ...

(now Loire-Atlantique), France, Chaplais was educated at the Collège Saint-Sauveur in

Redon Redon (; ) is a commune in the Ille-et-Vilaine department in Brittany in northwestern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department. Geography Redon borders the Morbihan and Loire-Atlantique departments. It is situated at the junction of t ...

and the

University of Rennes The University of Rennes is a public research university which will be officially reconstituted on 1 January 2023 and located in the city of Rennes, in Upper Brittany, France. The University of Rennes has been divided for almost 50 years, before ...

, where he studied Law and Classics, with a view of becoming an academic lawyer. His education was interrupted by

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, during which he served with the

French Army The French Army, officially known as the Land Army (french: Armée de Terre, ), is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces. It is responsible to the Government of France, along with the other components of the Armed Force ...

until the 1940 Armistice. A member of the

French Resistance The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...

, Chaplais was captured by the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...

and sent to

Buchenwald Buchenwald (; literally 'beech forest') was a Nazi concentration camp established on hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within Germany's 1937 borders. Many actual or sus ...

. For his wartime activities he received the ''

Médaille de la Résistance The Resistance Medal (french: Médaille de la Résistance) was a decoration bestowed by the French Committee of National Liberation, based in the United Kingdom, during World War II. It was established by a decree of General Charles de Gaulle on 9 ...

''. After the war he completed his education at Rennes and was admitted as an '' avocat''. He then began a thesis on Anglo-French relations during 1259–1453 at the

University of Paris , image_name = Coat of arms of the University of Paris.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of Arms , latin_name = Universitas magistrorum et scholarium Parisiensis , motto = ''Hic et ubique terrarum'' (Latin) , mottoeng = Here and a ...

. In 1946 he travelled to London to conduct research in the

Public Record Office The Public Record Office (abbreviated as PRO, pronounced as three letters and referred to as ''the'' PRO), Chancery Lane in the City of London, was the guardian of the national archives of the United Kingdom from 1838 until 2003, when it was ...

. There, under the influence of V. H. Galbraith, he registered for a PhD at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

instead. From 1948 to 1955 he was an editor for the Public Record Office, where he worked on the publication of treaty rolls. In 1955 he was elected Reader in Diplomatic at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

, succeeding to

Kathleen Major Kathleen Major (1906–2000) was a British historian, and principal of St Hilda's College, Oxford, from 1955 to 1965. ''The Daily Telegraph'' called her "the foremost historian of the medieval cathedral and diocese of Lincoln". Major was born o ...

. In 1964 he was elected a professorial fellow of

Wadham College, Oxford Wadham College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street and Parks Road. Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Dorothy W ...

. He retired in 1987.

References

1920 births 2006 deaths Academics of the University of Oxford Fellows of Wadham College, Oxford University of Rennes alumni Fellows of the British Academy Fellows of the Royal Historical Society Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London French expatriates in the United Kingdom 20th-century French historians French medievalists French palaeographers French Resistance members Buchenwald concentration camp survivors Alumni of the University of London 20th-century French lawyers French Army personnel of World War II {{France-historian-stub