Sir Frederick Maurice Powicke (16 June 1879 – 19 May 1963) was an English medieval historian. He was a fellow of Merton College, Oxford, a professor at Queen's University, Belfast, and the Victoria University of Manchester, and from 1928 until his retirement Regius Professor at the University of Oxford. He was made a Knight Bachelor in 1946.
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Life
Powicke was born on 16 June 1879 in Alnwick, the son of Frederick James Powicke, a Congregational minister and historian of 17th-century Puritanism, and Martha, the youngest daughter of William Collyer of Brigstock. Powicke was educated at Owens College, Manchester, where he took his first degree, and at Balliol College, Oxford, where he took another with first-class honours.
From 1908 to 1915 Powicke was a fellow of Merton College, Oxford, although in 1909 he was appointed as Professor of Modern History in the Queen's University, Belfast, where he remained for ten years. From 1919 to 1928 he was Professor of Mediæval History at the Victoria University of Manchester, and during his time in Manchester he was a member of the Chetham Society and served on its council from 1920 to 1933. He also served as Ford's Lecturer in English History at Oxford for 1927. In 1928 he became Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford, remaining in post until 1947. He was President of the Royal Historical Society from 1933 to 1937.
Powicke was small in build. At Oxford, he was determined to reinvigorate history there and make the university the leading centre in England for historical study.
Powicke was the author of the volume The Thirteenth Century in the Oxford History of England.
In 1909, Powicke married Susan Irvine Martin, daughter of Anna and Thomas Martin Lindsay. Together they had two daughters. Their daughter Janet married the historian Richard Pares.
Powicke died in the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford on 19 May 1963.
Works
The Loss of Normandy 1189–1204: Studies in the History of the Angevin Empire (1913)
Bismarck and the Origin of the German Empire (1914)
Ailred of Rievaulx and his biographer Walter Daniel (1922)
Stephen Langton (1927) Ford Lectures
Gerald of Wales (1928)
Historical Study at Oxford (1929) Inaugural lecture
Robert Grosseteste and the Nicomachean Ethics (1930)
Sir Henry Spelman and the 'Concilia' (1930) Raleigh Lecture on History
The Medieval Books of Merton College (1931) A catalogue
Oxford Essays in Medieval History. Presented to Herbert Edward Salter (1934) editor
The Christian Life in the Middle Ages (1935) essays
International Bibliography of Historical Sciences. Twelfth year (1937) editor
History, Freedom and Religion (1938) Riddell Memorial Lectures
Handbook of British Chronology (1939) editor
Three Lectures (1947)
King Henry III and the Lord Edward: the Community of the Realm in the Thirteenth Century (1947) 2 volumes (2nd ed., 1968)
Collaborations
The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages (3 vols) by Hastings Rashdall, editor with A. B. Emden
The Battle of Lewes 1264 (1964) with R. F. Treharne and Charles Lemmon
The Administration of the Honor of Leicester in the Fourteenth Century (1940) with L. Fox
Essays in Medieval History Presented to Thomas Frederick Tout (1925) editor with A. G. Little
Honours
Fellow of the British Academy, 1927
Corresponding Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America, 1929
Honorary Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford, 1939
Knight Bachelor, 1946
Honorary Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, 1947
Hon. Member of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 1947
Hon. Member of the American Historical Association
Hon. Member of the Royal Irish Academy, 1949
Hon. DLitt, University of Cambridge
Hon. DLitt, Durham University
Hon. LLD, University of St Andrews
Hon. LLD, University of Glasgow
Hon. LittD, University of Manchester, University of Liverpool, Queen's University Belfast, University of London and Harvard University
Hon. Doctorate, University of Caen