Nicholas Brooks (historian)

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Nicholas Peter Brooks (born January 14, 1941 in Virginia Water , Surrey , † February 2, 2014 ) was a British medieval historian. He was considered an authority on Anglo-Saxon England.

Life

Nicholas Brooks in 1941 as the son of WDW Brooks, a consultant physician at St Mary's Hospital in London district of Paddington born, and his wife Phyllis (nee Juler). He was the third of four children in the family. His interest in medieval history was aroused in his early youth through holiday stays in the family's cottage in Kent . The medieval history of the county in particular was not to let go of his further life and Anglo-Saxon Canterbury was to occupy a central point in his historical research .

Brooks attended Winchester College and studied history at Magdalen College of the University of Oxford , where he graduated in 1961. As early as 1964, when he was still doing his doctorate, Brooks got his first academic position at the University of St Andrews and stayed at the university until 1985. It was here that he met his future wife, Chlöe Willis. The two married in 1967. The marriage resulted in a son and a daughter. In 1969 he received his doctorate under Dorothy Whitelock as a DPhil on the Canterbury charters , an extensive collection of medieval donation deeds to the Church of Canterbury, still preserved in the original. The same dissertation resulted in his book The Early History of the Church of Canterbury in 1984 .

In 1978 he became editor-in-chief of the Studies in the Early History of Britain series (later Studies in Early Medieval Britain ). Under his direction, 30 volumes of the series were published. He was directly involved as editor or co-editor of several: Latin and the Vernacular Languages ​​in Early Medieval Britain (1982), St Oswald of Worcester (1996), and St Wulfstan and his World (2005). These publications had an important influence on the understanding of Anglo-Saxon England in its role within the British Isles and in its contacts with continental Europe.

In 1985 Brooks was appointed to Birmingham University , where he taught as a professor of medieval history. In 1989 he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy . In 2004 he retired .

Brooks published numerous papers in addition to his books. From 1991 until his death he directed the Anglo-Saxon charters project of the British Academy. As a result of 30 years of research, he and Susan Kelly published a two-volume complete work on the 185 documents of the Canterbury Charters with Charters of Christ Church Canterbury in 2013 .

He died of pancreatic cancer in February 2014 .

Publications (selection)

  • (Ed.): Latin and the Vernacular Languages ​​in Early Medieval Britain (1982, Leicester University Press)
  • The Early History of the Church of Canterbury (1984)
  • with Catherine Cubitt (Ed.): St Oswald of Worcester (1996, Leicester University Press)
  • Anglo-Saxon Myths: State and Church, 400-1066 (1998, Hambledon & London)
  • with Julia Barrow (Ed.): St Wulfstan and his World (2005)
  • with Susan Kelly (Ed.): Charters of Christ Church Canterbury (2013, 2 volumes)

literature

  • Julia Barrow , Andrew Wareham : Myth, Rulership, Church and Charters (2008, Festschrift in honor of Nicholas Brooks)
  • Barbara Crawford, Simon Keynes, Jinty Nelson: Nicholas Peter Brooks, 1941–2014 . In: Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the British Academy . tape XV , 2016, p. 23-41 ( thebritishacademy.ac.uk [PDF]).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Professor Nicholas Brooks , February 24, 2014, Staffordshire Hoard
personal data
SURNAME Brooks, Nicholas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Brooks, Nicholas Peter (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British medieval historian
DATE OF BIRTH January 14, 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH Virginia Water , Surrey
DATE OF DEATH 2nd February 2014