Richard Bruce Wernham, (11 October 1906 – 17 April 1999) was an English historian of

Elizabethan The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personific ...

England. After his death ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...

'' called him "the leading historian of English foreign policy in the 16th century".'Professor Bruce Wernham', ''The Times'' (16 June 1999), p. 23.

Early life

Wernham, the son of a tenant farmer, was born in

Ashmansworth Ashmansworth is a village and civil parish in the Basingstoke and Deane district of the English county of Hampshire. Geography The village is about south west of Newbury in Berkshire, and north east from Andover in Hampshire, just south west ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

. He was educated at St Bartholomew's Grammar School before going to

Exeter College, Oxford (Let Exeter Flourish) , old_names = ''Stapeldon Hall'' , named_for = Walter de Stapledon, Bishop of Exeter , established = , sister_college = Emmanuel College, Cambridge , rector = Sir Richard Trainor ...

, in 1925, where he achieved a first in modern history in 1927.

Academic career

In 1930 he was appointed a temporary assistant at the

Public Record Office The Public Record Office (abbreviated as PRO, pronounced as three letters and referred to as ''the'' PRO), Chancery Lane in the City of London, was the guardian of the national archives of the United Kingdom from 1838 until 2003, when it was ...

as part of a scheme designed to help young scholars achieve archival knowledge and editorial experience in preparation for a career in academia. He was appointed editor of the State Papers foreign series and edited its successor, the Lists and Analyses of State Papers. In October 1933 Wernham was appointed lecturer in history at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

. In April 1934 he was elected lecturer and then Fellow of

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

, which he would hold until 1951. In 1939 he married Isobel MacMillan, with whom he had a daughter Joan in 1943. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

he served in the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

at the photographic interpretation unit at

Medmenham Medmenham () is a village and civil parish in south-west Buckinghamshire, England. It is on the River Thames, about southwest of Marlow and east of Henley-on-Thames. The parish also includes Danesfield, a housing estate predominantly for RAF ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-e ...

, where his main duty was identifying appropriate landing sites for

Special Operations Executive The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British World War II organisation. It was officially formed on 22 July 1940 under Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton, from the amalgamation of three existing secret organisations. Its p ...

agents. Wernham was Professor of Modern History and Fellow at

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 ...

, from 1951 until 1972. He was also a visiting professor at South Carolina University (1958) and California University (1965–6). In 1956 Wernham criticised

Geoffrey Elton Sir Geoffrey Rudolph Elton (born Gottfried Rudolf Otto Ehrenberg; 17 August 1921 – 4 December 1994) was a German-born British political and constitutional historian, specialising in the Tudor period. He taught at Clare College, Cambridge, and w ...

's ''Tudor Revolution in Government'' for failing to demonstrate that there was any significant reform of the workings of the king's council under

Thomas Cromwell Thomas Cromwell (; 1485 – 28 July 1540), briefly Earl of Essex, was an English lawyer and statesman who served as chief minister to King Henry VIII from 1534 to 1540, when he was beheaded on orders of the king, who later blamed false char ...

, and he pointed out that many of Cromwell's administrative changes were reversed after his fall from power. Wernham also argued that

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...

was the dominating influence on policy, not Cromwell. Wernham also criticised Charles Wilson's 1969

Ford Lectures The Ford Lectures, technically the James Ford Lectures in British History, are an annual series of public lectures held at the University of Oxford on the subject of English or British history. They are usually devoted to a particular historical ...

. Wilson had attacked

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". Eli ...

for refusing to intervene in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

during the late 1570s. Wernham responded by claiming that intervention at that time would have provoked Philip II into a trade war, if not actual war.Bernard, 'Richard Bruce Wernham, 1906–1999', p. 391. Wernham delivered the

Una Lectures Una and UNA may refer to: Places * 160 Una, the asteroid "Una", an asteroid named after the Faerie Queene character * Una River (disambiguation), numerous rivers * Una, Himachal Pradesh, a town in India ** Una, Himachal Pradesh Assembly consti ...

at Berkeley, California in 1975 and these were published as ''The Making of Elizabethan Foreign Policy'' (1980). In his 1984 work, ''After the Armada'', Wernham argued that the strain of an expensive Continental war was a factor that helped pave the way for the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I (" Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of r ...

. In 1997 he was elected Fellow of the

British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars s ...

Hugh Trevor-Roper Hugh Redwald Trevor-Roper, Baron Dacre of Glanton (15 January 1914 – 26 January 2003) was an English historian. He was Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford. Trevor-Roper was a polemicist and essayist on a range of ...

considered Wernham "an archivist and not an historian".Bernard, 'Richard Bruce Wernham, 1906–1999', p. 387.

Works

* "The Disgrace of William Davison", ''The English Historical Review'', Vol. 46, No. 184 (Oct., 1931), pp. 632–636. * "Queen Elizabeth and the Siege of Rouen, 1591", ''Transactions of the Royal Historical Society'', Vol. 15 (1932), pp. 163–179. * (editor), ''Calendar of State Papers, Foreign Series, of the Reign of Elizabeth. Vol. XXII: July–December 1588'' (London: Stationery Office, 1936). * "Queen Elizabeth and the Portugal Expedition of 1589", ''The English Historical Review'', Vol. 66, No. 258 (Jan., 1951), pp. 1–26. * "Queen Elizabeth and the Portugal Expedition of 1589 (Continued)", ''The English Historical Review'', Vol. 66, No. 259 (Apr., 1951), pp. 194–218. * ''Before the Armada: The Emergence of the English Nation, 1485-1588'' (London: Jonathan Cape, 1966). * (editor), ''The New Cambridge Modern History. III. The Counter-Reformation and the Price Revolution'' (London: Cambridge University Press, 1968). * "Christopher Marlowe at Flushing in 1592", ''The English Historical Review'', Vol. 91, No. 359 (Apr., 1976), pp. 344–345. * ''The Making of Elizabethan Foreign Policy, 1558-1603'' (University of California Press, 1980). * ''After the Armada: Elizabethan England and the Struggle for Western Europe, 1588-1595'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984). * ''The Expedition of Sir John Norris and Sir Francis Drake to Spain and Portugal, 1589'' (Aldershot: Temple Smith, 1989). * ''The Return of the Armadas. The Last Years of the Elizabethan War against Spain, 1595-1603'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wernham, Richard Bruce 1906 births 1999 deaths Fellows of Trinity College, Oxford Fellows of the British Academy 20th-century English historians People educated at St. Bartholomew's School Alumni of Exeter College, Oxford People from Ashmansworth