Elizabeth A. R. Brown passes away - Medievalists.net (2024)

Elizabeth A. R. Brown, a highly regarded medieval historian and professor at the City University of New York, has passed away at the age of 92.

Also known as Peggy Brown, she was an influential scholar for over six decades. After earning PhDs from Radcliffe College and Harvard University, she went on to teach at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. Brown also served as President of the Medieval Academy of America.

Having penned over 130 books and articles dating back to 1958, Brown focused her research on France during the Capetian era. In an introduction to a book in her honour, M. Cecilia Gaposchkin and Jay Rubenstein commented that “her scholarship has evolved over decades which have witnessed the introduction of a whole series of trends, methods, turns, and new -isms (psychoanalysis, feminism, post-structuralism, material and linguistic turns…). Despite a healthy suspicion of any -ism, Brown’s work has, over time, foreseen and fostered many of the dominant scholarly ‘trends’ or ‘phases’ of our field—taking seriously the possibility of psychoanalytic approaches to history; embracing the study of royal ceremonies even before the ‘anthropological turn’ gripped the historical imagination; exploring issues of gender before they were in vogue, as part of her interest in figures like Jeanne d’Evreux, Blanche of Artois, or Eleanor of Aquitaine (yes, Eleanor was a Capetian at one point); and working on questions of death and the body before ‘embodiment’ became part of common scholarly parlance.”

Brown’s most famous article is undoubtedly ‘The Tyranny of a Construct: Feudalism and Historians of Medieval Europe,’ published in The American Historical Review in 1974. The article questioned whether feudalism even existed in the Middle Ages, and it marked the beginning of a transformation in how medieval historians viewed the topic. As she concluded in the article, “the tyrant feudalism must be declared once and for all deposed and its influence over students of the Middle Ages finally ended.”

Even after fifty years, this article is still discussed. In fact, Brown was interviewed earlier this year by Richard Matthew Pollard to reflect on her research.

Pollard writes:

“Everyone knew of Elizabeth A. R. Brown, as I certainly did ever since I was an undergraduate. But it was in July 2020 that she became ‘Peggy’ to me, when she emailed me out of the blue to learn more about something I was working on. She was so positive and enthusiastic; she even called the jejune pieces I sent her ‘true treasures’! Soon afterward, I felt safe in asking her to participate in a volume of French translations of classic articles. I wanted to finally render her famous 1974 article, ‘Feudalism: The Tyranny of a Construct,’ into French. She participated actively with the student translator, Réjean Girard, wrote a new preface, and even submitted to an interview to contextualize the article. She called it a ‘cri de coeur,’ something that had been building up in her since she was a student, something that, at age 42 and with tenure, she could finally let loose.”

You can learn more about feudalism and Elizabeth A. R. Brown’s role in this area of research in this episode of Richard Abels’ Tis But a Scratch podcast.

Brown’s research often centered around 13th- and 14th-century France, focusing on how the Capetian dynasty ruled over the kingdom and managed its government. “It is no exaggeration to say that Peggy Brown revolutionized approaches to one of the most formative periods in French political history,” writes Justine Firnhaber-Baker. “Her attention not only to institutional change but also to the period’s cultural, artistic, and intellectual transformations, ranging from funerary practice to manuscript painting, enabled scholars to view the development of monarchical government holistically. At the same time, her fascination for the personalities and personal relationships of the Capetian monarchs – evident from her early work on the childhood of Philip the Fair right through her recent articles on his children’s adultery scandal – brought to life a central feature of medieval dynastic power.”

Lisa fa*gin Davis, Executive Director of the Medieval Academy of America, commented, “The governance and staff of the Medieval Academy of America were heartbroken to hear of Peggy’s death. Because of her extraordinary academic achievements and her role as a beloved colleague, teacher, and mentor, Peggy was elected a Fellow of the MAA in 1987 and served as the Academy’s president in 2010-11. She was a treasured member of the worldwide community of medievalists and will be sorely missed.”

Many other medievalists and historians have taken to social media to praise Brown.

We mourn the loss of Radcliffe and Harvard alum Elizabeth A.R. (Peggy) Brown, a giant in the field of Medieval Studies and a beloved teacher and mentor to so many of us. Our condolences to her family, friends, and colleagues around the world. @MedievalAcademy @CUNY pic.twitter.com/wJG4uU9Sfz

— Harvard Medieval Studies (@HarvardMedieval) August 14, 2024

Just heard the sad news that Peggy Brown has passed away—having been lucky to get to know her in the last few years, I was astonished by her energy (both intellectual/physical), so it's a bit of a shock even though, at 92, not quite a surprise. #MedievalTwitter #twitterstorians

— Dr. Erika Graham-Goering (@jeanneologist) August 10, 2024

Post by @prof.j_firnhaberbaker

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Like many others, Richard Matthew Pollard commented on the friendship and support she gave to others in the field:

“Peggy was ever generous, ever enthusiastic, always ready with a kind word of encouragement and much erudition. She would write to me about her life freely, whenever I asked her. One of the last things she wrote: ‘As one gets older, one forgets so much. I find that I remember vividly … people and encounters, particularly, I acknowledge, when one erred or was shamed—with joyous encounters or encounters with memorable people or exchanges coming in next.’”

You can learn more about Elizabeth A. R. ‘Peggy’ Brown here.

Top Image: Photo by Edwarda / Wikimedia Commons