Peter Anthony Linehan, FBA (11 July 1943 – 9 July 2020) was a British historian of

medieval Spain Spain in the Middle Ages is a period in the history of Spain that began in the 5th century following the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ended with the beginning of the early modern period in 1492. The history of Spain is marked by waves o ...

. He was a fellow of

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College, formally the College of St John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge, is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch L ...

, where he was Dean of Discipline, and a fellow of the

British Academy The British Academy for the Promotion of Historical, Philosophical and Philological Studies 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 sa ...

Life

Linehan was born in

Mortlake Mortlake is a suburban district of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames on the south bank of the River Thames between Kew and Barnes, London, Barnes. Historically it was part of Surrey and until 1965 was in the Municipal Borough of Barnes ...

, London, the son of a brokerage clerk and a teacher, and attended

St Benedict's School, Ealing St Benedict's School, usually referred to as St Benedict's, is a British co-educational, independent Catholic day school for pupils aged 3-18 situated in Ealing, West London. A Benedictine school, it accepts and educates pupils of all faiths. H ...

. He first visited Spain in 1959. He joined St John's College in 1961 as an undergraduate to study History. He remained at St John's where he became a research fellow in 1966. He completed his PhD on "Reform and reaction: the Spanish kingdoms and the Papacy in the thirteenth century", under the supervision of

Walter Ullmann Walter Ullmann (29 November 1910 – 18 January 1983) was an Austrian-Jewish scholar who left Austria in the 1930s and settled in the United Kingdom, where he became a naturalised citizen. He was a recognised authority on medieval political tho ...

. This won the Thirlwall Prize and Seeley medal for 1970-1, and formed the basis for his first book, "The Spanish Church and the Papacy in the Thirteenth Century" (1971). At St John's, Linehan served as a Tutor, Tutor for Graduate Affairs, Director of Studies in History three times, and Dean of Discipline for 11 years. Linehan was influenced by

, Christopher Cheney,

Raymond Carr Sir Albert Raymond Maillard Carr (11 April 1919 – 19 April 2015) was an English historian specialising in the history of Spain, Latin America, and Sweden. From 1968 to 1987, he was Warden of St Antony's College, Oxford. Early life Carr was ...

Geoffrey Barraclough Geoffrey Barraclough (10 May 1908 – 26 December 1984) was an English historian, known as a medievalist and historian of Germany. Biography He was educated at Bootham School (1921–1924) in York and at Bradford Grammar School (1924–1925 ...

, and his tutor

Ronald Robinson Ronald "Robbie" Edward Robinson, CBE, DFC, FBA (3 September 1920 – 19 June 1999) was a distinguished historian of the British Empire who between 1971 and 1987 held the Beit Professorship of Commonwealth History at the University of Oxford. ...

. He became a fellow of the

Royal Historical Society The Royal Historical Society (RHS), founded in 1868, is a learned society of the United Kingdom which advances scholarly studies of history. Origins The society was founded and received its royal charter in 1868. Until 1872 it was known as the H ...

in 1971 and a corresponding member of the

Real Academia de la Historia The Royal Academy of History (, RAH) is a Spanish institution in Madrid that studies history "ancient and modern, political, civil, ecclesiastical, military, scientific, of letters and arts, that is to say, the different branches of life, of c ...

in 1996. He was elected a fellow of the British Academy in 2002. In 2018, he was awarded an honorary degree from the

Autonomous University of Madrid The Autonomous University of Madrid (; UAM), commonly known as la Autónoma, is a Spanish public university located in Madrid, Spain. The university was founded in 1968 by royal decree. UAM is widely respected as one of the most prestigious univ ...

Personal life

He died in 2020 aged 76 from heart disease. He was survived by his wife and their three children.

Books

* The Spanish Church and the Papacy in the Thirteenth Century (1971) * Spanish Church and Society, 1150-1300 (1983) * Past and Present in Medieval Spain (1992) * History and the Historians of Medieval Spain (1993) * The Ladies of Zamora (1997) * The Processes of Politics and the Rule of Law (2002) * The Mozarabic Cardinal: the life and times of

Gonzalo Pérez Gudiel Gonzalo Pérez 'Gudiel' (1238/9–1299), simply Gonzalo Pérez during his life (''Gonzalbo Petrez'', غنصالبه نيطرص, in his native mozarab Arabic), and wrongly Gonzalo García Gudiel in later church tradition,Jean-Pierre Molénat, ' ...

(2004, with Francisco J. Hernández) * Spain 1157–1300: a partible inheritance (2008) * St John's College, Cambridge: A History (2011) * Historical Memory and Clerical Activity in Medieval Spain and Portugal (2012) * Portugalia Pontificia: Materials for the history of Portugal and the Papacy 1198–1417 (2012) * At the Edge of Reformation: Iberia before the Black Death (2019)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Linehan, Peter 20th-century British historians Historians of Spain Fellows of St John's College, Cambridge Fellows of the British Academy Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge People educated at St Benedict's School, Ealing People from Mortlake, London 21st-century British male writers British male non-fiction writers 20th-century British male writers 21st-century British historians 1943 births 2020 deaths British medievalists