Susan Reynolds
FBA (27 January 1929 – 29 July 2021) was a British
medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
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 ...
whose book ''Fiefs and Vassals: the Medieval Evidence Reinterpreted'' (1994) was part of the academic critique on the concept of
feudalism
Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structur ...
as classically portrayed by previous historians such as
François-Louis Ganshof and
Marc Bloch
Marc Léopold Benjamin Bloch (; ; 6 July 1886 – 16 June 1944) was a French historian. He was a founding member of the Annales School of French social history. Bloch specialised in medieval history and published widely on Medieval France ov ...
. Reynolds rejected typical ideas of feudalism and presented a medieval society structured through ‘horizontal’ groups. According to ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', "Few books have been more intensely discussed by professional medieval historians. Largely as a consequence of this work, the word “feudalism”, or the “F-word”, as it came to be called by historians, began to lose currency among British medievalists."
Reynolds did not only wrote books that have changed the way we think about the past, but was someone who was constantly examining her own ideas and whose interests were extraordinarily wide-ranging.
Life
Reynolds was born in London, the daughter of a solicitor, and after Howell’s School,
Denbigh took a first degree at
Lady Margaret Hall ("LMH"), 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 ...
. Her first job was as an archivist at the
Middlesex County Record Office. A year later she joined the
Victoria County History
The Victoria History of the Counties of England, commonly known as the Victoria County History or the VCH, is an English history project which began in 1899 with the aim of creating an encyclopaedic history of each of the historic counties of En ...
as an editor, remaining there for seven years and taking a diploma in archival administration.
In an interview for the Institute of Historical Research, Reynolds pointed out that the archival diploma was her only higher qualification; she never gained either an MA or a PhD in history, but had only a bachelor's degree.
She taught at girl's schools from before 1960 to 1964, when she was unexpectedly offered a fellowship over lunch at her old college, Lady Margaret Hall. After she took early retirement from LMH in 1986, the Institute of Historical Research, British Library and other libraries became the place where she worked regularly.
After a year teaching at
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...
in
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the nor ...
, lived in London, with summers mostly spent in France. She continued to research and was involved with the
Institute of Historical Research
The Institute of Historical Research (IHR) is a British educational organisation providing resources and training for historical researchers. It is part of the School of Advanced Study in the University of London and is located at Senate Hou ...
.
Reynolds believed that the technical terms used in documents prior to around 1100 did not necessarily hold the meanings ascribed to them by historians who had preceded her; and that clerks of later periods tended to read into earlier documents meanings and relationships current in their own day. In her view, direct ownership of land was more prevalent in the early Middle Ages than had been thought, and the decline of central authority had been exaggerated.
She was elected to 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 spa ...
in 1993.
She was an Emeritus Fellow of LMH.
Books
* ''Introduction to the History of English Medieval Towns'', 1977.
* ''Kingdoms and Communities in Western Europe 900-1300'', Oxford, 1984.
* ''Fiefs and Vassals. The Medieval Evidence Reinterpreted'', 1994.
* ''Ideas and Solidarities of the Medieval Laity : England and Western Europe'', 1995.
* ''Before Eminent Domain: Toward a History of Expropriation of Land for the Common Good'', 2014.
Notes
External links
University of London School of Advanced Studies Faculty page for Susan ReynoldsPauline Stafford on the social media response to Susan Reynolds’ death
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reynolds, Susan
1929 births
2021 deaths
British historians
British medievalists
Women medievalists
British women historians
Contributors to the Victoria County History
Corresponding Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America
Alumni of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford
Fellows of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford
Fellows of the British Academy
Feudalism in Europe