Dominic Selwood | |
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Born | England | 19 December 1970
Nationality | English |
Alma mater | |
Occupations |
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Notable work | Anatomy of a Nation (2021) The Sword of Moses (2013) |
Military career | |
Allegiance | United Kingdom |
Service | British Army |
Years of service | 2015–2022 |
Rank | Captain |
Unit | General Service Corps (Reserve) |
Website | dominicselwood |
Dominic Selwood FSA FRSA FRHistS (born 19 December 1970) is an English historian, author, journalist and barrister. He has written several works of history, historical fiction and historical thrillers, most notably The Sword of Moses . and Anatomy of a Nation. A History of British Identity in 50 Documents . His background is in medieval history. He is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Exeter.
Selwood was born on 19 December 1970 [1] in England, and grew up in Salisbury, Cyprus, and Germany. [2] He went to school at Edge Grove School and Winchester College, [3] and studied law and French law at the University of Wales.
He was awarded a scholarship to the University of Poitiers, where a chance meeting in a local café with the publisher (and early sponsor of Private Eye ) [4] [5] Anthony Blond led to a collaboration on Blond's Roman Emperors. [6] His doctoral research on medieval religious and military life, specialising in the Knights Templar and Knights Hospitaller, the two leading military orders of the Crusades, was undertaken as a member of New College, Oxford. While conducting his research, he won a research scholarship to the Sorbonne in the history of Byzantium and the Christian Near-East, where he was awarded a double first class.
In 1997 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and he is also an elected Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
He was called to the Bar in London by Lincoln's Inn, [7] joined a set of barristers' chambers in the Inner Temple, and was a member of the Western Circuit. [8] In a 2014 interview he said that his work as a criminal barrister had been formative for writing thrillers. [9] He is one of the founders of Arabesque Partners.
Selwood says he is "obsessed with the weirder side of the past", [10] and describes himself as a "deeply fuzzy and laissez-faire English Catholic". [11] He speaks regularly about history at schools, universities, literary festivals, learned societies and institutions like the British Library and British Museum. [12] [13] [14] [15] [16]
Selwood served in the British Army Reserve, attending the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, before commissioning into the General Service Corps, reaching the rank of Captain. [17]
In 2023 he was a non-fiction writing mentor for London Jewish Book Week's Genesis Emerging Writers' programme. [18]
Selwood writes as a non-political journalist for the UK's Daily Telegraph newspaper and is currently a resident history columnist, including the daily 'On this Day' column. [19] His writing has been described as a "must read", [20] "a fascinating change from the usual dusty history books", [21] and "strident debunkery". [22] He has also written and reviewed for The Times Literary Supplement , The New Statesman , The Spectator , The Independent , CityAM , Prospect Magazine , The Harvard Business Review , The Tablet and The Catholic Herald .
He appears regularly on television and radio as a historical commentator and adviser, and on discussion shows like the BBC's The Big Questions . [23] He appears often on international news programmes explaining historical events, and is a regular on the Discovery Channel's prime time series Mysteries of the Abandoned. [24]
Selwood has defended universal museums, stressing their origin as Enlightenment foundations as opposed to colonial or imperial trophy cabinets. [35] He has argued for the accurate labelling of museum exhibits to take into account their full histories. [36] He has, in particular, advocated for a historic understanding of the British Museum's acquisition of the Elgin Marbles, noting that the Seventh Earl of Elgin obtained a firman from the Sublime Porte of Constantinople to transport them to Britain, and that Parliament investigated the lawfulness of his possession of the sculptures before purchasing them from him and donating them, in trust, to the British Museum. [37]
In May 2022 Selwood debated Stephen Fry at the Oxford University Union on the subject of repatriating cultural artefacts. [38]
Along with Eamonn Duffy, Selwood has written of Britain's strong Catholic heritage before the Reformation, pointing to its vibrancy and long heritage, locating it within a unified European Christendom, and noting the extreme measures used by the Tudors to suppress it. [39]
Pointing to medieval church records, Selwood has argued for a medieval origin for the Shroud of Turin. In support of this he has pointed to the scientific evidence.
After much toing and froing, the shroud was finally carbon dated in 1988 under the supervision of the British Museum. Laboratories in Oxford, Tucson, and Zurich were each sent a 40-gram section the size of a postage stamp, along with three control samples. The laboratories worked entirely independently of each other, and when the results were in, they all concurred, providing 95 per cent confidence in a date range of AD 1260–1390. [40]
Selwood has argued for the guilt of Richard III in the death of the Princes in the Tower.
Cui bono? is still the starting point for murder investigations the world over, and the main beneficiary of the princes’ permanent exit from the succession was undoubtedly Richard. Not only did he have the strongest motive, but he also had the boys under his absolute control, along with a proven disregard for their entitlements and well-being. He also never made any attempt to explain publicly where they were, or what had happened to them under his ‘protection’. [41]
Selwood has also questioned the accuracy of the DNA tests that identified a skeleton found under a carpark in Leicester in 2012 as the remains of Richard III, pointing to the wrong radiocarbon dating range until adjusted for a fish diet, a wrong male-line Y-chromosome, and likely wrong hair and eye pigmentation. [42]
Selwood played bass in London hard rock band The Binmen with The Sweet and Slade singer Mal McNulty and Ozzy Osbourne and Necromandus drummer Frank Hall. [43] In 2022 he was a guest DJ on Planet Rock radio. [44]
He has dealt extensively with music in his journalism, and wrote the obituary of Lemmy, founder of Motörhead, in The Spectator, describing him as "a national treasure – a unique collision of swing and amphetamines". [45]
Alfonso Jordan, also spelled Alfons Jordan or Alphonse Jourdain (1103–1148), was the Count of Tripoli (1105–09), Count of Rouergue (1109–48) and Count of Toulouse, Margrave of Provence and Duke of Narbonne (1112–48).
The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, mainly known as the Knights Templar, was a French military order of the Catholic faith, and one of the wealthiest and most popular military orders in Western Christianity. They were founded c. 1119 to defend pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem, with their headquarters located there on the Temple Mount, and existed for nearly two centuries during the Middle Ages.
The Bodleian Library is the main research library of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1602 by Sir Thomas Bodley, it is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second-largest library in Britain after the British Library. Under the Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003, it is one of six legal deposit libraries for works published in the United Kingdom, and under Irish law it is entitled to request a copy of each book published in the Republic of Ireland. Known to Oxford scholars as "Bodley" or "the Bod", it operates principally as a reference library and, in general, documents may not be removed from the reading rooms.
The Elgin Marbles are a collection of Ancient Greek sculptures from the Parthenon and other structures from the Acropolis of Athens, removed from Ottoman Greece and shipped to Britain by agents of Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, and now held in the British Museum in London. The majority of the sculptures were created in the 5th century BC under the direction of sculptor and architect Phidias.
Hugo de Paganis, better known by the French translation Hugues de Payens or Payns, was the co-founder and first Grand Master of the Knights Templar. In association with Bernard of Clairvaux, he created the Latin Rule, the code of behavior for the Order.
Baphomet is a deity that the Knights Templar were accused of worshipping that subsequently became incorporated into various occult and Western esoteric traditions. The name Baphomet appeared in trial transcripts for the Inquisition of the Knights Templar starting in 1307. It first came into popular English usage in the 19th century during debate and speculation on the reasons for the suppression of the Templar order. Baphomet is a symbol of balance in various occult and mystical traditions, the origin of which some occultists have attempted to link with the Gnostics and Templars, although occasionally purported to be a deity or a demon. Since 1856 the name Baphomet has been associated with the "Sabbatic Goat" image drawn by Éliphas Lévi, composed of binary elements representing the "symbolization of the equilibrium of opposites": half-human and half-animal, male and female, and good and evil. Lévi's intention was to symbolize his concept of balance, with Baphomet representing the goal of perfect social order.
Omne datum optimum was a papal bull issued by Pope Innocent II on 29 March 1139 that endorsed the Order of the Poor Knights of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, in which the Templar Rule was officially approved, and papal protection given.
Baldock is a historic market town in the North Hertfordshire district of Hertfordshire, England. The River Ivel rises from springs in the town. It lies 33 miles (53 km) north of London and 14 miles (23 km) north northwest of the county town of Hertford. Nearby towns include Royston to the northeast, Letchworth and Hitchin to the southwest and Stevenage to the south.
Dominic Christopher Sandbrook, is a British historian, author, columnist and television presenter. He co-hosts The Rest is History podcast with author Tom Holland.
Piers Paul Read FRSL is a British novelist, historian and biographer. He was first noted in 1974 for a book of reportage, Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors, later adapted as a feature film and a documentary. Read was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he studied history.
Royston Cave is an artificial cave located in Katherine's Yard, Melbourn Street, Royston, England. It is located beneath the crossroads formed by Ermine Street and the Icknield Way. It is protected as both a scheduled ancient monument and Grade I listed building. It has been speculated that it was used by the Knights Templar, who founded nearby Baldock, but this is unlikely, despite its enormous popular appeal. There are numerous theories about the Cave covering Freemasons and Templars as well as possibilities that the Cave was a prison or an anchorite cell. However, none of these theories have enough hard evidence to warrant their being adopted by the Cave Trust. It is open to the public in the summer months on Saturday, Sunday and Bank Holiday afternoons between Easter and October.
The Knights Templar, full name The United Religious, Military and Masonic Orders of the Temple and of St John of Jerusalem, Palestine, Rhodes and Malta, is a fraternal order affiliated with Freemasonry. Unlike the initial degrees conferred in a regular Masonic Lodge, which only require a belief in a Supreme Being regardless of religious affiliation, the Knights Templar is one of several additional Masonic Orders in which membership is open only to Freemasons who profess a belief in Christianity. One of the obligations entrants to the order are required to declare is to protect and defend the Christian faith. The word "United" in its full title indicates that more than one historical tradition and more than one actual order are jointly controlled within this system. The individual orders 'united' within this system are principally the Knights of the Temple, the Knights of Malta, the Knights of St Paul, and only within the York Rite, the Knights of the Red Cross.
The original historic Knights Templar were a Christian military order, the Order of the Poor Fellow Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, that existed from the 12th to 14th centuries to provide warriors in the Crusades. These men were famous in the high and late Middle Ages, but the Order was disbanded very suddenly by King Philip IV of France, who took action against the Templars in order to avoid repaying his own financial debts. He accused them of heresy, ordered the arrest of all Templars within his realm, put the Order under trial and many of them burned at the stake. The dramatic and rapid end of the Order led to many stories and legends developing about them over the following centuries. The Order and its members increasingly appear in modern fiction, though most of these references portray the medieval organization inaccurately.
Henry Soskin, better known as Henry Lincoln, was a British author, television presenter, scriptwriter, and actor. He co-wrote three Doctor Who multi-part serials in the 1960s, and — starting in the 1970s — inspired three Chronicle BBC Two documentaries on the alleged mysteries surrounding the French village of Rennes-le-Château — and, from the 1980s, co-authored and authored a series of books of which The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail was the most popular, becoming the inspiration for Dan Brown's 2003 best-selling novel, The Da Vinci Code. He was the last living person to have written for Doctor Who in the 1960s.
The history of the Knights Templar in England began when the French nobleman Hugues de Payens, founder and Grand Master of the Order, visited the country in 1128 to raise men and money for the Crusades.
Daniel Gwynne Jones is a British popular historian, TV presenter, and journalist. He was educated at The Royal Latin School, a state grammar school in Buckingham, before attending Pembroke College, Cambridge.
The Sword of Moses is a 2013 mystery detective thriller novel by the English historian and journalist Dominic Selwood. It is part one of the Ava Curzon trilogy.
The Apocalypse Fire is a 2016 mystery detective thriller novel by the English historian and journalist Dominic Selwood. It is part two of the Ava Curzon trilogy and sequel to The Sword of Moses.
Helen J. Nicholson FRHistS FLSW is Emerita Professor of Medieval History and former Head of the History Department at Cardiff University. She is a world-leading expert on the military religious orders and the Crusades, including the history of the Templars.
The Council of Troyes was convened by Bernard of Clairvaux on 13 January 1129 in the city of Troyes. The council, largely attended by French clerics, was assembled to hear a petition by Hugues de Payens, head of the Knights Templar. Pope Honorius II did not attend the council, sending the papal legate, Matthew, cardinal-bishop of Albano. The council addressed issues concerning the Templar Order and a dispute between the bishop of Paris and king of France.