History of the Stewarts | Famous Stewarts
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Professor Geoffrey Barrow
Medieval Historian
At Pembroke College, Oxford, he completed a B.Litt. thesis on ´Scottish royal ecclesiastical policy, 1107-1214´, giving an indication of what his focus would be as an historian.
He moved further south in 1950 when he took up a lectureship at University College, London, also marrying in 1951 Heather Elizabeth (née Lownie), with whom he later had one son and one daughter. Academically, he made his reputation in 1953 with a prize-winning essay on ´Scottish rulers and the religious orders, 1070-1153´. The book Feudal Britain followed in 1956, the first rounded study of Britain in the Middle Ages, although Professor Barrow would soon turn his attention to Scottish feudalism rather than the Anglo-Norman variety.
In 1961 he became Professor of Medieval History at King´s College, Durham, where he edited scholarly volumes on Malcolm IV and William I, subsequently moving a little further north to Newcastle University. In 1973 he published a collection of his scholarly articles, The Kingdom of the Scots, editing The Scottish Tradition the following year. Also in 1974, he finally returned to Scotland as the first Professor of Scottish History at the University of St Andrews.
Barrow´s writing covered the entire spectrum of Scottish medieval history, spanning the period from the Dark Ages to the 14th century, and while at Edinburgh University he published The Anglo-Norman Era in Scottish History (1980) and Kingship and Unity: Scotland, 1000-1306 (1981). When he retired in 1992 his publication list extended to more than 90 items, including eight books and 86 articles, essays and pamphlets, plus numerous encyclopedia entries and countless reviews.
Even in retirement, Professor Barrow remained Professor Emeritus at Edinburgh and in 1992 he published another collection of article entitled Scotland and its Neighbours in the Middle Ages and, in 1999, edited The Charters of King David I. He was elected to Fellowship of the British Academy in 1976 and the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1977. He was made Ford´s Lecturer at the University of Oxford in 1977, and awarded an honorary D.Litt. by the University of Glasgow in 1988. He was also involved in the Scottish History Society (as chairman and president), the Saltire Society (as president), the Royal Historical Society (as literary director and vice-president) and the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts (as a member). He was a long time member of the Stewart Society and was an Honorary Vice President.
