Royall Tyler (May 4, 1884 – March 2, 1953), was an American historian, who was a descendant of the American

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Uni ...

and

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

Royall Tyler Royall Tyler (June 18, 1757 – August 26, 1826) was an American jurist and playwright. He was born in Boston, graduated from Harvard University in 1776, and then served in the Massachusetts militia during the American Revolution. He was ad ...

. He was born in

Quincy, Massachusetts Quincy ( ) is a coastal U.S. city in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the largest city in the county and a part of Greater Boston, Metropolitan Boston as one of Boston's immediate southern suburbs. Its population in 2020 was 1 ...

, and educated at

Harrow School (The Faithful Dispensation of the Gifts of God) , established = (Royal Charter) , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent schoolBoarding school , religion = Church of E ...

in England. After a time at

New College, Oxford New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as its feeder school, New College is one of the oldest colleges at th ...

, he moved to the University of Salamanca, where he became a friend of Miguel de Unamuno. In 1909 he published ''Spain, a Study of her Life and Arts,'' the first work in English to recognize the genius of

El Greco Domḗnikos Theotokópoulos ( el, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος ; 1 October 1541 7 April 1614), most widely known as El Greco ("The Greek"), was a Greek painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. "El G ...

. Appointed by the British government to edit the ''Calendar of State Papers'' related to negotiations between England and Spain in the time of

Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, french: Charles Quint, it, Carlo V, nl, Karel V, ca, Carles V, la, Carolus V (24 February 1500 – 21 September 1558) was Holy Roman Emperor and Archduke of Austria from 1519 to 1556, King of Spain (Crown of Castile, Castil ...

, he published the first of the five volumes of these papers in 1913; the last, completed just before his death, appeared in 1954. Gale Biography In Context. During World War I he served as an officer in the US Army. In 1919 he joined the US delegation to the

Paris Peace Conference Agreements and declarations resulting from meetings in Paris include: Listed by name Paris Accords may refer to: * Paris Accords, the agreements reached at the end of the London and Paris Conferences in 1954 concerning the post-war status of Germ ...

, and in 1924 the League of Nations appointed him Financial Advisor to the government of Hungary. With Hayford Peirce (the older brother of the painter Waldo Peirce) he published in

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

a pioneering study of Byzantine art, and he died just after completing his posthumously published biography, ''The Emperor Charles the Fifth''. Tyler also helped to inspire and shape the major collections of Byzantine art brought together by Robert Woods Bliss and Mildred Barnes Bliss and housed at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, DC. He spent most of World War II in Geneva,

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

, where he drew on his high-level, Europe-wide connections to perform vital work for the

US intelligence The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

network run by

Allen Welsh Dulles Allen Welsh Dulles (, ; April 7, 1893 – January 29, 1969) was the first civilian Director of Central Intelligence (DCI), and its longest-serving director to date. As head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) during the early Cold War, he ov ...

. He spent his last years in Paris, first with the

International Bank for Reconstruction and Development The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) is an international financial institution, established in 1944 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, that is the lending arm of World Bank Group. The IBRD offers l ...

, then as European Representative of the National Committee for a Free Europe.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tyler, Royall 1884 births 1953 deaths 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers Writers from Quincy, Massachusetts University of Salamanca alumni Alumni of New College, Oxford People educated at Harrow School Sciences Po alumni United States Army personnel of World War I United States Army officers Historians from Massachusetts 20th-century American male writers Military personnel from Massachusetts