Reynolds, Susan, 1929-2021

by Professor David L. d'Avray FBA and Professor John Hudson FBA

Date
28 Feb 2022
Number of pages
26 (pages 139-164)

Susan Reynolds was elected to the British Academy after she had worked out a new framework for the medieval history of England, France, Germany and northern Italy. The breakthrough book was her Kingdoms and Communities in Western Europe 900–1300 (1984); it brought all levels of society together in a synthesis, and was a stunning achievement. Her subsequent Fiefs and Vassals (Oxford, 1994) left a generation reluctant even to use the word ‘feudalism’, and other important contributions continued until not long before she died. In 2001 she was honoured with a Festschrift entitled Law, Laity and Solidarities.

Posted to Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the British Academy, 20

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