Robert John Bartlett, CBE, FBA,

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

(born 27 November 1950 in

Streatham Streatham ( ) is a district in south London, England. Centred south of Charing Cross, it lies mostly within the London Borough of Lambeth, with some parts extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth. Streatham was in Surrey ...

) is an English

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

and

medievalist The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often v ...

. He is Bishop Wardlaw Professor of Mediaeval History Emeritus 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 ...

. After attending

Battersea Grammar School Battersea Grammar School was a Voluntary-Controlled Secondary Grammar School in South London. It was established in Battersea in 1875 by the Sir Walter St John Trust and moved to larger premises in Streatham in 1936. The school closed when it w ...

in London (1962 to 1969), he studied at

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 ...

St John's College, Oxford St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded as a men's college in 1555, it has been coeducational since 1979.Communication from Michael Riordan, college archivist Its founder, Sir Thomas White, intended to pr ...

and

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

as a Jane Eliza Procter Visiting Fellow. He obtained research fellowships at several institutions, including the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

and

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...

, before working at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 1 ...

, the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

and 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 ...

, where he currently resides. He is particularly known for his work ''The Making of Europe: Conquest, Colonization and Cultural Change, 950-1350'', which won the

Wolfson History Prize The Wolfson History Prizes are literary awards given annually in the United Kingdom to promote and encourage standards of excellence in the writing of history for the general public. Prizes are given annually for two or three exceptional works ...

in 1993. He specializes in medieval colonialism, the cult of saints, and England between the 11th century and the 14th century. He gave the 2007

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 ...

at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

. He wrote and presented ''Inside The Medieval Mind'', a four-part documentary broadcast by the BBC in 2008 as part of a medieval season. In 2010, he wrote and presented '' The Normans'' on the BBC, a documentary series about their wide-ranging impact on Britain, countries of the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on ...

and as far afield as the

Holy Land The Holy Land; Arabic: or is an area roughly located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Eastern Bank of the Jordan River, traditionally synonymous both with the biblical Land of Israel and with the region of Palestine. The term "Holy ...

. In 2014, he presented the BBC documentary series '' The Plantagenets'', about the eponymous royal dynasty.''The Plantagenets,'' BBC2
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Select bibliography

* ''Gerald of Wales, 1146-1223'', (Oxford, 1982) * ''Trial by fire and water : the medieval judicial ordeal'' (Oxford, 1986) * (ed. with Angus MacKay) ''Medieval frontier societies'' * ''The Making of Europe: Conquest, Colonization and Cultural Change, 950-1350'' (London, 1993) * ''England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings'', (Oxford, 2000) * ''Medieval and Modern Concepts of Race and Ethnicity'' (Scotland 2001) Published in 'Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 31:1, Winter 2001 * (ed.& tr.) ''Life and miracles of St Modwenna'', (Oxford, 2002, ) * (ed.& tr.) ''The miracles of Saint Æbbe of Coldingham and Saint Margaret of Scotland'', (Oxford, 2003, ) * ''The Hanged Man: A Story of Miracle, Memory and Colonialism in the Middle Ages'', (Princeton, 2005, ) * ''Gerald of Wales: A Voice of the Middle Ages'', (Tempus, 2006, ) evised edition of ''Gerald of Wales, 1146-1223''* ''The Natural and the Supernatural in the Middle Ages (The Wiles Lectures)'', (Cambridge University Press, 2008, ) * ''Why Can the Dead Do Such Great Things?: Saints and Worshippers from the Martyrs to the Reformation'', (Princeton University Press, 2013, ) * ''Blood Royal: Dynastic Politics in Medieval Europe'', (Cambridge University Press, 2020, ) * ''The Middle Ages and the Movies: Eight Key Films'', (Reaktion Books, 2022, )

References

External links

''Professor Robert Bartlett,'' in Who's Who 2011, online edition

''Listing at New York Review of Books''

Open University The Open University (OU) is a British Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's underg ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bartlett, Robert 1950 births Living people People from Streatham Alumni of St John's College, Oxford Alumni of Peterhouse, Cambridge Princeton University alumni English historians British medievalists Academics of the University of Edinburgh Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh University of Michigan fellows Fellows of the British Academy People educated at Battersea Grammar School