author
H. W. Carless (Henry William Carless) Davis
1874–1928
A clear, wide-ranging historian of medieval Europe, he combined deep scholarship with a gift for explaining the forces that shaped England and the Continent. He is also remembered for guiding the Dictionary of National Biography and later serving as Oxford’s Regius Professor of Modern History.
1 Audiobook
Medieval Europe
by H. W. Carless (Henry William Carless) Davis
About the author
Born in Gloucestershire in 1874, H. W. Carless Davis became one of Britain’s best-known historians of medieval Europe. He studied at Balliol College, Oxford, was elected a fellow of All Souls while still very young, and went on to build a career as a teacher, writer, and editor.
His books include Charlemagne, England under the Normans and Angevins, Medieval Europe, and The Age of Grey and Peel. The range of those works shows both his command of medieval history and his ability to write for readers who wanted serious scholarship without losing the larger story.
Later in his career, he edited the Dictionary of National Biography, taught at the University of Manchester, and in 1925 became Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford. He died in 1928, leaving behind a reputation for lucid, dependable history and for helping shape how historical biography was presented to a wider public.