Rees Davies

Sir Robert Rees Davies, (6 August 1938 – 16 May 2005) was a Welsh historian.

Biography

Davies was born in Merionethshire, and educated at Bala Grammar School. He was bilingual in Welsh and English.Obituary in ''The Independent'' 23 May 2005, Accessed 11 May 2014
/ref> He received a First in his degree from University College London in 1959, later returning there as a lecturer in 1963. In 1959 he undertook a two-year postgraduate study of the Duchy of Lancaster’s Welsh lordships in the later Middle Ages at Merton College, Oxford under the supervision of K. B. McFarlane.

In 1975, he was appointed Professor of History, University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. His 1987 book ''Conquest, Coexistence and Change: Wales 1063–1415'' won him the Wolfson Literary Award for History. In 1992 he became President of the Royal Historical Society.

In 1995, he was appointed the Chichele Professor of Medieval History at the University of Oxford and made a fellow of All Souls College. From 1995 to 2005 he served as Chairman of the Ancient Monuments Board for Wales. Davies was appointed a Knight Bachelor for services to history in the Queen's 2005 New Year Honours.

He is best known for his reinvigoration of Welsh medieval scholarship and as a pioneer in the study of British history, rejecting earlier Anglo-centric treatments of the medieval histories of Britain and Ireland.

In 1966, he married Carys Lloyd Wynne, with whom he had one son and one daughter. Professor Sir Rees Davies died of cancer in Oxford, aged 66.

Works

*1978 ''Lordship and Society in the March of Wales, 1282–1400'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press)
*1984 ''Welsh Society and Nationhood: Historical Essays Presented to Glanmor Williams'', jointly edited (Cardiff: University of Wales Press )
*1987 ''Conquest, Coexistence, and Change: Wales, 1063–1415'', part of the Oxford History of Wales (Oxford: Clarendon Press)
*1987 ''Wales: the Age Of Conquest, 1063–1415''
*1988 ''The British Isles, 1100–1500: Comparisons, Contrasts, and Connections'' (Edinburgh: J. Donald Publishers)
*1990 ''Domination and Conquest: the Experience of Ireland, Scotland and Wales, 1100–1300'' (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press)
*1995 ''The Revolt of Owain Glyn Dŵr'' (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press )
*2000 ''The Age of Conquest: Wales, 1063–1415'' (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press)
*2000 ''The First English Empire: Power and Identities in the British Isles: 1093–1343'' (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press)
*2002 ''Owain Glyn Dwr: trwy ras Duw, Tywysog Cymru'' (Talybont, Ceredigion: Y Lolfa, in Welsh)
**English translation by Gerald Morgan: ''Owain Glyndwr: Prince of Wales'' (Talybont, Ceredigion: Y Lolfa, 2009)
*2004 ''From Medieval to Modern Wales: Historical Essays in Honour of Kenneth O. Morgan and Ralph A. Griffiths'', edited with Geraint H. Jenkins, (Cardiff: University of Wales Press)
*2009 ''Lords and Lordship in the British Isles in the Late Middle Ages'', edited by Brendan Smith, (Oxford: Oxford University Press)

References

Obituary in the ''Guardian'' 26 May 2005



Obituary in ''History Today'', Volume 55 Issue 9

{{DEFAULTSORT:Davies, Rees
1938 births
2005 deaths
Davies, Robert Rees
20th-century Welsh historians
Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford
Presidents of the Royal Historical Society
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
Knights Bachelor
British medievalists
Chichele Professors of Medieval History
21st-century Welsh historians
Alumni of Merton College, Oxford
Fellows of the British Academy