Richard Alexander Fletcher (28 March 1944, in

York York is a cathedral city with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many hist ...

, England – 28 February 2005, in

Nunnington Nunnington is a village and civil parish in the Ryedale district of North Yorkshire, England. The River Rye runs through. Its population, including Stonegrave, taken at the 2011 census was 361. It is rich in listed historic buildings. History ...

, England) was a

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

who specialised in the

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

period.

Early years

Richard Fletcher was the eldest child and only son of Alexander Kendal Humphrey Fletcher, a banker from

Leeds Leeds () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the thi ...

, by his marriage to Monica Elizabeth Hastings Medhurst/Fletcher. His childhood home was at

Wighill Wighill is a village and civil parish in the Harrogate district of North Yorkshire, England. It is near the River Wharfe and east of Wetherby, West Yorkshire. The village has one public house, the White Swan Inn, which reopened in 2009 after ...

, near

Tadcaster Tadcaster is a market town and civil parish in the Selby district of North Yorkshire, England, east of the Great North Road, north-east of Leeds, and south-west of York. Its historical importance from Roman times onward was largely as the ...

. He attended, as a scholar,

Harrow School Harrow School () is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English Independent school (United Kingdom), independent boarding school for boys) in Harrow on the Hill, Greater London, England. The school was founded in 1572 by John Lyon (sc ...

and

Worcester College, Oxford Worcester College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. The college was founded in 1714 by the benefaction of Sir Thomas Cookes, 2nd Baronet (1648–1701) of Norgrove, Worcestershire, whose coat of arms ...

where he was taught by James Campbell and achieved a First Class Honours degree.

Professional career

In 1969 he was appointed as a lecturer at the

University of York , mottoeng = On the threshold of wisdom , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £8.0 million , budget = £403.6 million , chancellor = Heather Melville , vice_chancellor = Charlie Jeffery , students ...

where he remained for the rest of his career, becoming professor of history in 1998. His first book, published in 1978 and based on his doctoral thesis, was entitled "The Episcopate in the Kingdom of León in the Twelfth Century", which pointed the way for an academic career much of which would focus on medieval Spain. Fletcher was one of the outstanding talents in English and Spanish medieval scholarship.

Geoffrey Wheatcroft Geoffrey Albert Wheatcroft (born 23 December 1945) is a British journalist, author, and historian. Early life and education Wheatcroft is the son of Stephen Frederick Wheatcroft (1921–2016), OBE, and his first wife, Joyce (née Reed). He wa ...

"Richard Fletcher Historian fascinated by medieval Spain"
''The Guardian'', 18 March 2005.

Personal

Richard Fletcher married Rachel Mary Agnes Toynbee, herself a grand daughter both of another notable historian and of a British Liberal prime minister, in 1976. The marriage produced three children.

Select bibliography of Fletcher's publications

* ''The Quest for El Cid''. 1989, 1991. * ''Who's Who in Roman Britain and Anglo-Saxon England'', 1989 (first volume of ''Who's Who in British History'') * ''Moorish Spain''. 1992. * ''The Conversion of Europe: From Paganism to Christianity 371-1386AD'' London 1997 , as
The Barbarian Conversion: From Paganism to Christianity
' Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1999. * * ''Christian-Muslim Understanding in the Later Middle Ages''. 2003. * ''The Cross and The Crescent: The Dramatic Story of the Earliest Encounters Between Christians and Muslims''. 2005.

Bibliography

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fletcher, Richard A. 1944 births 2005 deaths British medievalists People from York People educated at Harrow School Alumni of Worcester College, Oxford 20th-century English historians 21st-century English historians Academics of the University of York