Rosamond McKitterick | |
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Born | Rosamond Deborah Pierce 31 May 1949 Chesterfield, England |
Spouse | |
Awards | Heineken Prize (2010) |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | |
Thesis | The Carolingian Renaissance (1976) |
Doctoral advisor | Walter Ullmann |
Academic work | |
Discipline | History |
Sub-discipline | Medieval history |
Institutions | |
Main interests | Franks |
Rosamond Deborah McKitterick FSA FRSA FRHistS (born 31 May 1949) is an English medieval historian. She is an expert on the Frankish kingdoms in the eighth and ninth centuries AD,who uses palaeographical and manuscript studies to illuminate aspects of the political,cultural,intellectual,religious,and social history of the Early Middle Ages. From 1999 until 2016 she was Professor of Medieval History and director of research at the University of Cambridge. [1] She is a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College and Professor Emerita of Medieval History in the University of Cambridge. [2]
McKitterick was born Rosamond Pierce in Chesterfield,Derbyshire,England,on 31 May 1949. From 1951 to 1956 she lived in Cambridge,England,where her father had a position at Magdalene College. In 1956 she moved with her family to Western Australia where she completed primary and secondary school and completed an honours degree at the University of Western Australia. She holds the degrees of MA,PhD,and LittD from the University of Cambridge. [2]
McKitterick's doctoral thesis was entitled The Carolingian Renaissance:A Study in the Education of a Society. It was submitted under McKitterick's maiden name of Pierce. The thesis was approved on 24 February 1976. [3] McKitterick's supervisor was Walter Ullmann. [4]
In 1971 she returned to Cambridge University to pursue her career. She was a Fellow of Newnham College,Cambridge and then became a professorial fellow of Sidney Sussex College. McKitterick has been described as a "doyenne in her field;her decades of tireless research and teaching have been poured into a steady stream of major publications on Carolingian subjects." [5] Thomas F. X. Noble considers McKitterick to be "one of the most original and productive historians of Europe's early Middle Ages". [4] She has supervised 42 PhD theses to completion,as of October 2015,with five more in progress. [4] She has been a member of the council of the British School at Rome. [6]
McKitterick was a Balsdon Fellow at the British School in Rome,April–June 2002. Her research focus was "Charlemagne in Italy". [7] From 2005 to 2006 she was a Fellow at the Netherlands Institute of Advanced Study. [8]
In 2010 McKitterick was awarded the Dr A. H. Heineken International Prize for History by the Royal Dutch Academy. [9] The prize was established in 1990 and is awarded bi-annually for outstanding scholarly achievement in the field of history. [10] Other awardees include Judith Herrin and Aleida Assman. In 2015 McKitterick was elected to the Lectio Chair at the Katholieke Universiteit of Leuven's Centre for the Transmission of Texts and Ideas in Antiquity,the Middle Ages,and the Renaissance. [11]
On 16 March 2017,McKitterick was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (FSA). [12] She is also an elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (FRHistS) and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA). [13] She was the President of the Ecclesiastical History Society (2018–19). McKitterick is a Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America,Monumenta Germaniae Historica,and the Austrian Academy of Sciences. [14]
On 15 October 2018 McKitterick delivered the James Lydon Lecture in Medieval History and Culture at Trinity College Dublin with "Rome and the Invention of the Papacy in the Early Middle Ages". [15]
In 2018 McKitterick was honoured with a Festschrift ,Writing the Early Medieval West,to mark her retirement in September 2016. The volume consists of contributions from fifteen of McKitterick's former students. [4]
She married David McKitterick,Librarian of Trinity College,Cambridge, [16] in 1976. They have one daughter. [17]
Edited volumes
Carloman I,also Karlmann,was king of the Franks from 768 until his death in 771. He was the second surviving son of Pepin the Short and Bertrada of Laon and was a younger brother of Charlemagne. His death allowed Charlemagne to take all of Francia and begin his expansion into other kingdoms.
Carloman II was the King of West Francia from 879 until his death. A member of the Carolingian dynasty,he and his elder brother,Louis III,divided the kingdom between themselves and ruled jointly until the latter's death in 882. Thereafter Carloman ruled alone until his own death. He was the second son of King Louis the Stammerer and Queen Ansgarde.
Desiderius,also known as Daufer or Dauferius,was king of the Lombards in northern Italy,ruling from 756 to 774. The Frankish king of renown,Charlemagne,married Desiderius's daughter and subsequently conquered his realm. Desiderius is remembered for this connection to Charlemagne and for being the last Lombard ruler to exercise regional kingship.
Aistulf was the Duke of Friuli from 744,King of the Lombards from 749,and Duke of Spoleto from 751. His reign was characterized by ruthless and ambitious efforts to conquer Roman territory to the extent that in the Liber Pontificalis,he is described as a "shameless" Lombard given to "pernicious savagery" and cruelty.
Ermengarde of Hesbaye,probably a member of the Robertian dynasty,was Carolingian empress from 813 and Queen of the Franks from 814 until her death as the wife of the Carolingian emperor Louis the Pious.
The Battle of Tertry was an important engagement in Merovingian Gaul between the forces of Austrasia under Pepin II on one side and those of Neustria and Burgundy on the other. It took place in 687 at Tertry,Somme,and the battle is presented as an heroic account in the Annales mettenses priores. After achieving victory on the battlefield at Tertry,the Austrasians dictated the political future of the Neustrians.
Walter Ullmann 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 thought,and in particular legal theory,an area in which he published prolifically.
Adélaïde of Paris (Aélis) was a Frankish queen. She was the second wife of Louis the Stammerer,King of West Francia and mother of Charles the Simple.
Dame Janet Laughland Nelson,also known as Jinty Nelson,is a British historian. She is Emerita Professor of Medieval History at King's College London.
Sarah Rosamund Irvine Foot is an English Anglican priest and early medieval historian,previously serving as Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History at the University of Oxford. On 8 July 2023,she became the first woman to serve as Dean of Christ Church,Oxford.
Gerberga was the wife of Carloman I,King of the Franks,and sister-in-law of Charlemagne. Her flight to the Lombard kingdom of Desiderius following Carloman's death precipitated the last Franco-Lombard war,and the end of the independent kingdom of the Lombards in 774.
The Annals of Metz are a set of Latin Carolingian annals covering the period of Frankish history from the victory of Pepin II in the Battle of Tertry (687) to the time of writing. Although the annals do cover events following 806,these sections are not original writings but are additions borrowed from other texts and appended to the original annals in the 9th and 12th centuries.
Kathleen Winifred Hughes was an English historian,her specialisation was Irish ecclesiastical history,particularly the early Christian Church in Ireland.
Donald Auberon Bullough FSAScot FRPSL was a British historian who taught and published on the cultural and political history of Italy,England and Carolingian France during the early Middle Ages. He was the brother of mathematician Robin Bullough.
The Admonitio generalis is a collection of legislation known as a capitulary issued by Charlemagne in 789,which covers educational and ecclesiastical reform within the Frankish kingdom. Capitularies were used in the Frankish kingdom during the Carolingian dynasty by government and administration bodies and covered a variety of topics,sorted into chapters. Admonitio generalis is actually just one of many Charlemagne's capitularies that outlined his desire for a well-governed,disciplined Christian Frankish kingdom. The reforms issued in these capitularies by Charlemagne during the late 8th century reflect the cultural revival known as the Carolingian Renaissance.
Matilda of France,a member of the Carolingian dynasty,was Queen of Burgundy from about 964 until her death,by her marriage with King Conrad I.
Julia Mary Howard Smith,is Chichele Professor of Medieval History at All Souls College,Oxford. She was formerly Edwards Professor of Medieval History at the University of Glasgow. She is a graduate of Newnham College,University of Cambridge,and Corpus Christi College,University of Oxford.
David John McKitterick,is an English librarian and academic,who was Librarian and Fellow of Trinity College,Cambridge.
Mayke de Jong is a Dutch historian and Professor Emerita of Medieval History at Utrecht University. Her research focuses on the political and religious history of the early Middle Ages.
The Annales Tiliani are an anonymous set of Latin annals from the Frankish kingdom,covering the years 708–807. They are considered minor annals.