Jonathan Simon Christopher Riley-Smith (27 June 1938 – 13 September 2016) was a historian of the
Crusade
The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were i ...
s, and, between 1994 and 2005,
Dixie Professor of Ecclesiastical History
The Dixie Professorship of Ecclesiastical History is one of the senior professorships in history at the University of Cambridge.
Lord Mayor of London in the 16th century, Sir Wolstan Dixie, left funds to found both scholarships and fellowships at ...
at
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
.
He was a
Fellow
A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context.
In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements.
Within the context of higher education ...
of
Emmanuel College, Cambridge
Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican mon ...
.
Provenance and early life
Riley-Smith was the eldest of four children born into a prosperous Yorkshire
brewing family. His maternal grandfather (to whose memory he later dedicated his book ''What Were the Crusades?'') was the
British Conservative Party
The Conservative Party, officially the Conservative and Unionist Party and also known colloquially as the Tories, is one of the two main political parties in the United Kingdom, along with the Labour Party. It is the current governing party, ...
MP,
John Craik-Henderson (1890-1971).
He attended
Eton College
Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, C ...
and
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...
, where he took his BA (1960), MA (1964), PhD (1964), and LittD (2001).
[
]
Academic career
Riley-Smith taught at the University of St Andrews
(Aien aristeuein)
, motto_lang = grc
, mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best
, established =
, type = Public research university
Ancient university
, endowment ...
(1964–1972), Queens' College, Cambridge
Queens' College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Queens' is one of the oldest colleges of the university, founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou. The college spans the River Cam, colloquially referred to as the "light s ...
(1972-1978), Royal Holloway College, London
Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public research university and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It has six schools, 21 academic departm ...
(1978–1994) as well as at Emmanuel
Immanuel ( he, עִמָּנוּאֵל, 'Īmmānū'ēl, meaning, "God is with us"; also romanized: , ; and or in Koine Greek of the New Testament) is a Hebrew name that appears in the Book of Isaiah (7:14) as a sign that God will protect the ...
(1994–2005).[ His many respected publications on the origins of the crusading movement and the motivations of the first crusaders have deeply influenced current historiography of the crusades: in an appreciative obituary, a senior colleague described Riley-Smith as "quite simply the leading historian of the crusades anywhere in the world".]
He was appointed a Knight of Grace and Devotion of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta
The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), officially the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta ( it, Sovrano Militare Ordine Ospedaliero di San Giovanni di Gerusalemme, di Rodi e di Malta; ...
and a Bailiff Grand Cross of the .
Riley-Smith appeared in the documentary series ''Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...
'' (1995) as an historical authority. However, the series adopted the by then outdated views of Steven Runciman
Sir James Cochran Stevenson Runciman ( – ), known as Steven Runciman, was an English historian best known for his three-volume ''A History of the Crusades'' (1951–54).
He was a strong admirer of the Byzantine Empire. His history's negative ...
, which were not held by the interviewed experts. Then the producers edited the taped interviews so that the historians seemed to be agreeing with Runciman. Riley-Smith said of the producers, "they made me appear to say things that I do not believe!"
Personal life
Riley-Smith was a convert to Catholicism. He married Louise Field, a portrait artist, in 1968. Their three children include the singer/songwriter Polly Paulusma
Polly Paulusma (born 10 November 1976) is an English singer-songwriter.
Career
Her first album, ''Scissors in my Pocket'', was largely recorded and produced by herself at her home. A second album, ''Cosmic Rosy Spine Kites'' (a virtual anagra ...
.
Jonathan Riley-Smith died on 13 September 2016.
Bibliography
*''The Knights of St John in Jerusalem and Cyprus, c. 1050–1310'' (London, Macmillan, 1967, reprinted 2002)
*
*
*''The Feudal Nobility and the Kingdom of Jerusalem, 1174–1277'' (London, Macmillan, 1973, reprinted 2002)
*''What Were the Crusades?'' (London, Macmillan, 1977, 2nd edition 1992, 3rd edition Basingstoke, Palgrave, 2002)
*''The Crusades: Idea and Reality, 1095–1274'', with Louise Riley-Smith (London, Edward Arnold, 1981)
*''The First Crusade and the Idea of Crusading'' (London and Philadelphia, Athlone/ University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986, paperback US 1990, UK 1993)
*''The Crusades: A Short History'' (London and New Haven, Athlone/ Yale University Press, 1987, also in paperback, translated into French, Italian and Polish)
*''The Atlas of the Crusades'' (editor) (London and New York, Times Books/ Facts on File, 1991, translated into German and French)
*''The Oxford Illustrated History of the Crusades'', editor (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1995, paperback 1997, now reissued as ''The Oxford History of the Crusades'', paperback, 1999, translated into Russian, German and Polish)
*''Cyprus and the Crusades'', editor, with Nicholas Coureas) (Nicosia, Society for the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East and Cyprus Research Centre, 1995)
*''Montjoie: Studies in Crusade History in Honour of Hans Eberhard Mayer'', editor, with Benjamin Z. Kedar
Benjamin Ze'ev Kedar (born 2 September 1938)Who's Who in Israel 2001 (Tel Aviv, 2002), p. 214: "KEDAR, Benjamin Z. is professor emeritus of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He was president of the international Society for the Stu ...
and Rudolf Hiestand (Aldershot, Variorum, 1997)
*''The First Crusaders, 1095–1131'' (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1997, paperback 1998 and 2000)
*''Hospitallers: The History of the Order of St. John'' (London, The Hambledon Press, 1999, also in paperback, translated into Russian)
*''Al seguito delle Crociate Rome'' (Di Renzo: Dialoghi Uomo e Societΰ, 2000)
*''Dei gesta per Francos: Etudes sur les croisades dιdiιes ΰ Jean Richard'', editor, with M. Balard and B.Z. Kedar (Aldershot (Ashgate), 2001)
*''The Crusades, Christianity, and Islam'' (Columbia University Press, 2008)
*''The Knights Hospitaller in the Levant 1070–1309'' (Basingstoke, 2012)
References
External links
Obituary
''The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was fo ...
'', 22 September 2016
{{DEFAULTSORT:Riley-Smith, Jonathan
1938 births
2016 deaths
English Christians
English Roman Catholics
Fellows of Queens' College, Cambridge
English historians
Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge
Bailiffs Grand Cross of the Order of St John
Fellows of Emmanuel College, Cambridge
Fellows of the Royal Historical Society
Historians of the Crusades
People educated at Eton College
People from Harrogate
Dixie Professors of Ecclesiastical History
Converts to Roman Catholicism
Place of death missing
Corresponding Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America