Thomas Brian Harvey Goodwin Wormald (24 July 1912 – 22 March 2005) was a British historian. He was born in 1912 and his father was the

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

rector of Solihull, Warwickshire.'Brian Wormald', ''The Times'' (6 May 2005), p. 67. He was 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 ...

and

Peterhouse, Cambridge Peterhouse is the oldest constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England, founded in 1284 by Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely. Today, Peterhouse has 254 undergraduates, 116 full-time graduate students and 54 fellows. It is quite ...

, where he obtained a First in both parts of the Historical Tripos, as well as winning academic prizes. He was then a research student at

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corpo ...

before returning to Peterhouse in 1938. He was much influenced by Herbert Butterfield and admired his scepticism towards received wisdom in historical interpretations. He was ordained as an Anglican deacon during the Second World War and he also attended a theological college which had been evacuated to Cambridge. He later served as chaplain and dean of Peterhouse. However, in the 1950s Wormald became alienated from the Church of England due to what he saw as its backsliding and compromises. He admired

Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII ( it, Pio XII), born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli (; 2 March 18769 October 1958), was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death in October 1958. Before his e ...

definition A definition is a statement of the meaning of a term (a word, phrase, or other set of symbols). Definitions can be classified into two large categories: intensional definitions (which try to give the sense of a term), and extensional definitio ...

of the Assumption of Mary and converted to Catholicism. Wormald specialised in seventeenth-century English history, and his first work was a study of Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, which was published in 1951. Wormald demonstrated that the divide between Cavalier and Roundhead did not emerge until shortly before fighting began in 1642, thereby undermining the notion of the English Civil War as "the English Revolution".J. C. D. Clark, ''Revolution and Rebellion: State and Society in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries'' (Cambridge University Press, 1986), p. 132, p. 146. He was married to the sister of Lord Lloyd and they had four sons, one of whom was the historian Patrick Wormald. After his death, '' The Times'' said "Wormald had one of the most distinguished historical minds of his generation".

Works

*''Clarendon: Politics, History and Religion 1640-1660'' (Cambridge University Press, 1951, 1976, 1989). *''Francis Bacon: History, Politics and Science, 1561-1626'' (Cambridge University Press, 1993).

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wormald, B. H. G. 1912 births 2005 deaths People educated at Harrow School Alumni of Peterhouse, Cambridge 20th-century British historians 20th-century Anglican deacons English Revolution