According to sources close to the family, 91-year-old British historian John Elliott, one of the most prominent Hispanists in the world known for his research on the Spanish Empire, passed away on Thursday. He had recently been taken to Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital with pneumonia.
Elliott was given the Prince of Asturias Award for Social Sciences in 1996. He also obtained honorary doctorates from universities including Carlos II, Alcalá de Henares, and Complutense.
J. Elliott He was the author of several important works on Hispanism, including “Language and empire in the Spain of Philip IV” and “Divided Europe (1559-1598),” as well as what is regarded as the canonical biography of the Count Duke of Olivaresa figure who always interested him. Catalanes y Escoceses (Taurus / Rosa dels Vents), his most recent book, was released in 2018 and examines the origins of the two biggest independence movements in the European Union.
Born in 1930 to teachers in the town of Reading, between London and Oxford, he attended the exclusive Eton School, graduated from the University of Cambridge with a doctorate in History in 1952, and went on to become a professor at King’s College London and Princeton. He joined the Royal Academy of History of Madrid in 1965 as a member.
The 16th and 17th centuries saw the rise and fall of the Catholic monarchy, and the Hispanist established himself as an authority on that time period. Elliott was singled out by the Prince of Asturias jury as a “master of Hispanists” who “properly” structured his study of Spanish history “in the European and American context.” He further stated that he had made a contribution “to the knowledge of Spanish history abroad, dispelling cliches and preconceptions regarding important areas of the Hispanic past.” He was acknowledged for his “equanimity of approaches, rigor in the consultation of the sources, and clarity in the presenting of the results” in his writings.