David Bruce Crouch, (born 31 October 1953) is a Welsh historian and academic. From 2000 until his retirement in 2018 he was

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professo ...

Medieval History 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, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

at the

University of Hull , mottoeng = Bearing the Torch f learning, established = 1927 – University College Hull1954 – university status , type = Public , endowment = £18.8 million (2016) , budget = £190 million ...

Academia

He graduated in history from the former University College, Cardiff, in 1975, and pursued a career in secondary school teaching in Mountain Ash, South Wales till 1983. While serving as a schoolteacher he completed a doctorate on the Anglo-Norman twin aristocrats, Waleran of Meulan and Robert of Leicester, subsequently published by Cambridge University Press. From 1984 he occupied research posts in the University of London until moving to a teaching position in North Riding College, later University College, Scarborough in 1990. In 2000 he transferred to the Department of History in the University of Hull as professor of medieval history. He has occupied visiting professorships in Poitiers and Milwaukee. From 2013 he held a Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship and in 2015 he was a member of the

Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholar ...

Corpus of work

Professor Crouch's main focus is on the social and political history of the period from 1000 to 1300, primarily in England and France, with a particular emphasis on comparative studies of social structures between the various realms of Britain and continental France. His fullest statement on his theory that it was the formulation of nobility as a self-conscious aristocratic quality demanding social deference is to be found in his 2005 work ''The Birth of Nobility''. His idea is that once nobility was a quality that could be acquired and demonstrated by conduct and lifestyle as much as by birth, a cascade effect was triggered which produced a hierarchy of social classes organised by relative degrees of nobility, such as the hearth son of a knight. He sees this as happening in the generations on either side of the year 1200. From the beginning of his career he has also published on the medieval history of South East Wales and the diocese of

Llandaff Llandaff (; cy, Llandaf ; from 'church' and ''River Taff, Taf'') is a district, Community (Wales), community and coterminous electoral ward in the north of Cardiff, capital of Wales. It was incorporated into the city in 1922. It is the seat of ...

. In political history he has written influential biographies on King Stephen and

William Marshal William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke (1146 or 1147 – 14 May 1219), also called William the Marshal (Norman French: ', French: '), was an Anglo-Norman soldier and statesman. He served five English kings— Henry II, his sons the "Young King" ...

. He was a member of the academic team which edited and translated into English the contemporary medieval biography of Marshal His books on the aristocracy of England and France in the

High Middle Ages The High Middle Ages, or High Medieval Period, was the periodization, period of European history that lasted from AD 1000 to 1300. The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and were followed by the Late Middle Ages, which ended ...

, have been characterised by his incorporation of English social history into the mainstream of continental scholarship.‘The Pragmatic Origins of British Social History,’ in, ''Die Deutung der mittelalterlichen Gesellschaft in der Moderne'', ed. N. Fryde, P. Monnet, O.G. Oexle and L. Zygner (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2006), 123-145

Honours

In 1986, Crouch was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Historical Society 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 ...

(FRHistS). In 2014, he was elected a

Fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: # Fellows – scholars resident in the United Kingdom # ...

(FBA), the United Kingdom's

national academy A national academy is an organizational body, usually operating with state financial support and approval, that co-ordinates scholarly research activities and standards for academic disciplines, most frequently in the sciences but also the hu ...

for the humanities and social sciences.

Books

* * 2nd edition 2002. * * * * * * * * * * (volume 2 in the Cambridge History of Britain series) * * *

References

External links

Biography
at the

home page {{DEFAULTSORT:Crouch, David 1953 births Living people British medievalists Academics of the University of Hull Fellows of the British Academy Fellows of the Royal Historical Society Contributors to the Victoria County History