Robert John Bartlett, CBE, FBA,

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and Literature, letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". ...

(born 27 November 1950) is an English

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 species; as well as the ...

and

medievalist The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

. He is Bishop Wardlaw Professor of Mediaeval History Emeritus at the

University of St Andrews The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, f ...

. Bartlett was born in

Streatham Streatham ( ) is a district in south London, England. Centred south of Charing Cross, it lies mostly within the London Borough of Lambeth, with some parts extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth. Streatham was in Surrey ...

. After attending Battersea Grammar School in London (1962 to 1969), he studied at

Peterhouse, Cambridge Peterhouse is the oldest Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England, founded in 1284 by Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely. Peterhouse has around 300 undergraduate and 175 graduate stud ...

St John's College, Oxford St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded as a men's college in 1555, it has been coeducational since 1979.Communication from Michael Riordan, college archivist Its foun ...

and

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

as a Jane Eliza Procter Visiting Fellow. He obtained research fellowships at several institutions, including the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

and

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen (, commonly referred to as Georgia Augusta), is a Public university, public research university in the city of Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1734 ...

, before working at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

, the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

and the

, where he currently resides. He is particularly known for his work ''The Making of Europe: Conquest, Colonization and Cultural Change, 950-1350'', which won the Wolfson History Prize in 1993. He specializes in medieval colonialism, the cult of saints, and England between the 11th century and the 14th century. He gave the 2007 Ford Lectures at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

. He wrote and presented ''Inside The Medieval Mind'', a four-part documentary broadcast by the BBC in 2008 as part of a medieval season. In 2010, he wrote and presented '' The Normans'' on the BBC, a documentary series about their wide-ranging impact on Britain, countries of the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

and as far afield as the

Holy Land The term "Holy Land" is used to collectively denote areas of the Southern Levant that hold great significance in the Abrahamic religions, primarily because of their association with people and events featured in the Bible. It is traditionall ...

. In 2014, he presented the BBC documentary series '' The Plantagenets'', about the eponymous royal dynasty.''The Plantagenets,'' BBC2
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Select bibliography

* ''Gerald of Wales, 1146-1223'', (Oxford, 1982) * ''Trial by fire and water : the medieval judicial ordeal'' (Oxford, 1986) * (ed. with Angus MacKay) ''Medieval frontier societies'' * ''The Making of Europe: Conquest, Colonization and Cultural Change, 950-1350'' (London, 1993) * ''England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings'', (Oxford, 2000) * ''Medieval and Modern Concepts of Race and Ethnicity'' (Scotland 2001) Published in ''Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies'' 31:1, Winter 2001 * (ed.& tr.) ''Life and miracles of St Modwenna'', (Oxford, 2002, ) * (ed.& tr.) ''The miracles of Saint Æbbe of Coldingham and Saint Margaret of Scotland'', (Oxford, 2003, ) * ''The Hanged Man: A Story of Miracle, Memory and Colonialism in the Middle Ages'', (Princeton, 2005, ) * ''Gerald of Wales: A Voice of the Middle Ages'', (Tempus, 2006, ) evised edition of ''Gerald of Wales, 1146-1223''* ''The Natural and the Supernatural in the Middle Ages (The Wiles Lectures)'', (Cambridge University Press, 2008, ) * ''Why Can the Dead Do Such Great Things?: Saints and Worshippers from the Martyrs to the Reformation'', (Princeton University Press, 2013, ) * ''Blood Royal: Dynastic Politics in Medieval Europe'', (Cambridge University Press, 2020, ) * ''The Middle Ages and the Movies: Eight Key Films'', (Reaktion Books, 2022, ) * ''History in Flames: The Destruction and Survival of Medieval Manuscripts'', (Cambridge University Press, 2024, )

References

External links

''Professor Robert Bartlett,'' in Who's Who 2011, online edition

''Listing at New York Review of Books''

Open University The Open University (OU) is a Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bartlett, Robert 1950 births Living people People from Streatham Alumni of St John's College, Oxford Alumni of Peterhouse, Cambridge Princeton University alumni English historians British medievalists Academics of the University of Edinburgh Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh University of Michigan fellows Fellows of the British Academy People educated at Battersea Grammar School Wolfson History Prize winners