Chris Wickham, one of the most influential historians of medieval Europe, has passed away. His research transformed how scholars understand the transition from the Roman Empire to the Middle Ages, while his books introduced generations of readers to the political, social and economic history of medieval Europe.
Born in 1950, Wickham was a specialist in early medieval history and medieval Italy, particularly known for his comparative approach to history. His work challenged conventional interpretations of the early Middle Ages, placing greater emphasis on economic structures, social relationships and the experiences of ordinary people.
Wickham studied at the University of Oxford, where he completed his doctorate in 1975. He joined the University of Birmingham in 1977, beginning a long academic career that established him as a leading authority on medieval European history. From 2005 to 2016, he held the prestigious Chichele Professorship of Medieval History at Oxford.
Wickham’s early research concentrated on the social and economic structures of medieval Italian society. His first major book, Early Medieval Italy: Central Power and Local Society, 400–1000, published in 1981, examined the changing structures of power and society in Italy following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire.
He continued exploring these themes in The Mountains and the City: The Tuscan Appennines in the Early Middle Ages (1988), a detailed study of rural communities and their relationships with the wider political and economic world.
His most influential work was arguably Framing the Early Middle Ages: Europe and the Mediterranean, 400–800, published by Oxford University Press in 2005. This monumental study examined the transformation of societies across the former Roman world and neighbouring regions during the centuries following the end of Roman imperial rule in western Europe.
Rather than treating the emergence of medieval Europe as a single process, Wickham compared developments across a vast geographical area, exploring differences in taxation, aristocratic wealth, landownership, peasant communities and commercial exchange.
The book won the Wolfson History Prize in 2006, along with the Deutscher Memorial Prize and the James Henry Breasted Prize of the American Historical Association. It became an essential reference for historians studying late antiquity and the early Middle Ages.
Alongside his specialist scholarship, Wickham wrote several books that made complex historical debates accessible to a broader readership.
In The Inheritance of Rome: A History of Europe from 400 to 1000 (2009), he presented a sweeping account of the early medieval world, examining the transformations that followed the decline of Roman power and the emergence of new kingdoms and empires.
His Medieval Europe (2016) offered another broad interpretation of medieval history, covering the period from the end of the Roman Empire to the late Middle Ages.
Wickham also continued to publish major works on medieval Italy, including Medieval Rome: Stability and Crisis of a City, 900–1150 (2014) and Sleepwalking into a New World: The Emergence of Italian City Communes in the Twelfth Century (2015).
His final book, The Donkey and the Boat: Reinterpreting the Mediterranean Economy, 950–1180 (2023), examined commercial exchange across the Mediterranean and challenged assumptions about economic growth during the central Middle Ages. He explained why he wanted to write this book:
This book began with the intense dissatisfaction I felt with the traditional narratives of the ‘commercial revolution’ of the central middle ages in Europe and the Mediterranean, and above all of its origins. There is at least no doubt that a major economic change occurred… But what caused it, and what its very nature was in different places, seem to me to be widely misunderstood, even in its most basic elements. Hence my dissatisfaction. What follows is an attempt to resolve the problems I found, as they relate, specifically, to the Mediterranean and the regions bordering it, in the period of the origins that ‘revolution’ up to 1180 or so.
In an interview published in British Academy Review, Wickham explained why he was interested in history ‘from below’:
It’s where most people live. If between 85 and 95 per cent of the population of medieval Europe are peasants, it doesn’t seem reasonable to me to restrict yourself to the study of the other tiny percentage – although of course that is where the historical documentation is. That’s true everywhere: even if you look at the society of the village, you will find that you are looking at village elites rather than the poorest villagers.
But you can still look at history from the bottom upwards. In fact, you can’t not do so. Even if you are only interested in kings, you still have to look at the way they act in the framework of the society they are operating inside. They can’t control everything, and the things they can’t control are dependent on the behaviour of everybody else – the 85 or 95 per cent – as much as on their own behaviour. You just have to study the whole thing.
His wife, Leslie Brubaker, is also a distinguished medieval scholar, specialising in Byzantine art and cultural history. The couple married in 1990.
Many medievalists have commented with sadness about his passing and noted the huge impact he has had on the field:
Acabe d’assabentar-me de la mort del Prof. Chris Wickham.
Ausaes que vam parlar dels seus treballs el dimecres passat en l’oposició per a TU.
Ara som una miqueta més orfes, historiogràficament parlant.
Que la terra li siga lleu
🛴🛴🛴 https://t.co/ceCdOfENCH
Just saw that Chris Wickham has passed. Incredible historian, an absolute giant of medieval history, one of the most original thinkers of the last few decades, someone whose work will always be in my head and heart. May he continue tracking the distribution of African Red Slip in the great beyond.
A personal anecdote about Chris Wickham, whose passing – like everyone in our field – comes as shocking news. Other people will be able to replicate this with myriads of their own examples. In the spring of 2016, I was spending three months in the Belgian Academy of Rome on a modest stipend.
Chris Wickham, one of the most influential historians of medieval Europe, has passed away. His research transformed how scholars understand the transition from the Roman Empire to the Middle Ages, while his books introduced generations of readers to the political, social and economic history of medieval Europe.
Born in 1950, Wickham was a specialist in early medieval history and medieval Italy, particularly known for his comparative approach to history. His work challenged conventional interpretations of the early Middle Ages, placing greater emphasis on economic structures, social relationships and the experiences of ordinary people.
Wickham studied at the University of Oxford, where he completed his doctorate in 1975. He joined the University of Birmingham in 1977, beginning a long academic career that established him as a leading authority on medieval European history. From 2005 to 2016, he held the prestigious Chichele Professorship of Medieval History at Oxford.
Wickham’s early research concentrated on the social and economic structures of medieval Italian society. His first major book, Early Medieval Italy: Central Power and Local Society, 400–1000, published in 1981, examined the changing structures of power and society in Italy following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire.
He continued exploring these themes in The Mountains and the City: The Tuscan Appennines in the Early Middle Ages (1988), a detailed study of rural communities and their relationships with the wider political and economic world.
His most influential work was arguably Framing the Early Middle Ages: Europe and the Mediterranean, 400–800, published by Oxford University Press in 2005. This monumental study examined the transformation of societies across the former Roman world and neighbouring regions during the centuries following the end of Roman imperial rule in western Europe.
Rather than treating the emergence of medieval Europe as a single process, Wickham compared developments across a vast geographical area, exploring differences in taxation, aristocratic wealth, landownership, peasant communities and commercial exchange.
The book won the Wolfson History Prize in 2006, along with the Deutscher Memorial Prize and the James Henry Breasted Prize of the American Historical Association. It became an essential reference for historians studying late antiquity and the early Middle Ages.
Alongside his specialist scholarship, Wickham wrote several books that made complex historical debates accessible to a broader readership.
In The Inheritance of Rome: A History of Europe from 400 to 1000 (2009), he presented a sweeping account of the early medieval world, examining the transformations that followed the decline of Roman power and the emergence of new kingdoms and empires.
His Medieval Europe (2016) offered another broad interpretation of medieval history, covering the period from the end of the Roman Empire to the late Middle Ages.
Wickham also continued to publish major works on medieval Italy, including Medieval Rome: Stability and Crisis of a City, 900–1150 (2014) and Sleepwalking into a New World: The Emergence of Italian City Communes in the Twelfth Century (2015).
His final book, The Donkey and the Boat: Reinterpreting the Mediterranean Economy, 950–1180 (2023), examined commercial exchange across the Mediterranean and challenged assumptions about economic growth during the central Middle Ages. He explained why he wanted to write this book:
This book began with the intense dissatisfaction I felt with the traditional narratives of the ‘commercial revolution’ of the central middle ages in Europe and the Mediterranean, and above all of its origins. There is at least no doubt that a major economic change occurred… But what caused it, and what its very nature was in different places, seem to me to be widely misunderstood, even in its most basic elements. Hence my dissatisfaction. What follows is an attempt to resolve the problems I found, as they relate, specifically, to the Mediterranean and the regions bordering it, in the period of the origins that ‘revolution’ up to 1180 or so.
In an interview published in British Academy Review, Wickham explained why he was interested in history ‘from below’:
It’s where most people live. If between 85 and 95 per cent of the population of medieval Europe are peasants, it doesn’t seem reasonable to me to restrict yourself to the study of the other tiny percentage – although of course that is where the historical documentation is. That’s true everywhere: even if you look at the society of the village, you will find that you are looking at village elites rather than the poorest villagers.
But you can still look at history from the bottom upwards. In fact, you can’t not do so. Even if you are only interested in kings, you still have to look at the way they act in the framework of the society they are operating inside. They can’t control everything, and the things they can’t control are dependent on the behaviour of everybody else – the 85 or 95 per cent – as much as on their own behaviour. You just have to study the whole thing.
His wife, Leslie Brubaker, is also a distinguished medieval scholar, specialising in Byzantine art and cultural history. The couple married in 1990.
Many medievalists have commented with sadness about his passing and noted the huge impact he has had on the field:
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