Albert Pollard

Albert Pollard

Albert Frederick Pollard (born December 16, 1869 in Ryde ; † August 3, 1948 ) was a British historian who specialized in the Tudo era .

life and career

Pollard was born in Ryde on the Isle of Wight and studied at the Felsted School and Jesus College , Oxford , where he received a first-class award in modern history in 1891 . He became an assistant editor and contributor to the Dictionary of National Biography in 1893 . His main academic position was that of Professor of Constitutional History at University College London , which he held from 1903 to 1931 . He was a member of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscriptsand founder of the Historical Association in 1906. He was editor of History from 1916 to 1922 and of the Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research from 1923 to 1939 . He has published 500 articles in the Dictionary of National Biography and many other books and essays on history. Late in his career, he was an important force in establishing history as a subject in the UK . His major work, The Evolution of Parliament , was published in 1920. In the same year he was elected a member of the British Academy .

In retirement, Pollard lived in Milford on Sea . He was the father of the bibliographer and bookseller Graham Pollard and the father-in-law of the communist and women's rights activist Kay Beauchamp (1899-1992).

controversy

Albert Pollard studied and wrote about the history of the Tudors from a political point of view. The most important books include Henry VIII (1905) and The History of England from the Accession of Edward VI to the Death of Elizabeth, 1547–1603 (1910). In the latter he came to the famous conclusion that "sterility was the coherent note of the reign of Mary"; this statement has been challenged in recent years by revisionist historians who have portrayed Mary in a much more favorable way. Some of Pollard's speculations are now widely discredited by the revisionist history school, run by academics like Christopher Haigh . For example, he put forward the thesis that English foreign policy from 1514 to 1529 was motivated by Thomas Wolsey's desire to become Pope . Pollard is identified with the Whiggish School of History along with his student JE Neale . They saw in Henry VIII an energetic reformer who led England out of the opaque medieval roads into the modern world.

Political activity

Pollard was politically active for the Liberal Party and ran in the general elections in 1922 , 1923 and 1924 as a Liberal candidate for the constituency of London University . In the first two elections, his competitor for the Labor Party was the writer HG Wells , whom he could defeat each time, but the winner of the election was the unionist Sydney Russell-Wells . In the 1924 election, Pollard was third in the constituency, while the seat went to the independent candidate Ernest Graham-Little .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Who's who. 1913. Retrieved January 5, 2020 . 
2. ^ Deceased Fellows. British Academy, accessed July 18, 2020 . 
3. ^ Pollard, Albert Frederick, (Dec. 16, 1869-3 Aug. 1948), Member of the Royal Historical MSS Commission; Hon. Fellow of Jesus College; Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford 1908-36; Hon. VP, Royal Historical Society; Professor of Constitutional History, etc., University of London, 1903-31; Founder of the Historical Association, 1906, and Editor of History, 1916-22, and of the Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, 1923-39; Founder and Chairman of the Institute of Historical Research, 1920–39; Corresponding Member (1930) of the Académie des Inscr. et Belles Lettres (Inst. de France) | WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO. Retrieved January 5, 2020 .