Sir Frederick Maurice Powicke (16 June 1879 - 19 May 1963) was an English medieval historian. He was a Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford

Balliol College, Oxford

Balliol College , founded in 1263, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England but founded by a family with strong Scottish connections....

, delivered the Ford Lectures

Ford Lectures

The Ford Lectures are a prestigious series of public lectures given annually in English or British History by a distinguished historian. Known commonly as "The Ford Lectures," they are properly titled "Ford's Lectures in British History" and they are given by a scholar elected to be "Ford's...

 in 1927, and from 1929 was Regius Professor of History at Oxford. He was knighted in 1946.

Character and historical writings

He was a tough, difficult man, small of build and with something of a Napoleon complex

Napoleon complex

Napoleon complex is an informal term describing an alleged type of inferiority complex which is said to affect some people, especially men, who are short in stature. The term is also used more generally to describe people who are driven by a perceived handicap to overcompensate in other aspects of...

. Having succeeded as a student at Oxford (receiving First Class Honours there and at Manchester, his undergraduate college) he was determined to reinvigorate history there. That being said, he unquestionably made Oxford the leading centre in the country for historical study. On the other hand, his small size and poor abilities as an athlete may have led him to romanticize such characters as Edward I, who comes across as a nearly-perfect physical specimen in Powicke's work.

His daughter Janet married esteemed Oxford historian Richard Pares. Powicke wrote the volume The Thirteenth Century in the Oxford History of England

Oxford History of England

The Oxford History of England is one of the most prominent and acclaimed modern history series, written by many of the then-leading historians of each period....

.

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)
• Essays in Medieval History Presented to Thomas Frederick Tout (1925) editor with A. G. Little
• 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
• The Administration of the Honor of Leicester in the Fourteenth Century (1940) with L. Fox
• Three Lectures (1947)
• King Henry III and the Lord Edward: the Community of the Realm in the Thirteenth Century (1947) 2 volumes
• Mediaeval England, 1066-1485 (1948)
• Ways of Medieval Life and Thought: Essays and Addresses (1949)
• Walteri Danielis: Vita Ailredi Abbatis Rievall: The Life of Ailred of Rievaulx by Walter Daniel (1950) editor
• Oxford History of England - Thirteenth Century 1216 - 1307 (1953)
• The Reformation in England (1953)
• Modern Historians and the Study of History: Essays and Papers (1955)
• The Battle of Lewes 1264 (1964) with R. F. Treharne and Charles Lemmon
• The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages (3 vols) by Hastings Rashdall
  Hastings Rashdall
  Hastings Rashdall was an English philosopher who expounded a theory known as ideal utilitarianism.Son of an Anglican priest, he was educated at Harrow and received a scholarship for New College, Oxford...
  
  , editor with A. B. Emden