Le Patourel, Medieval Administration (1937)

Author(s): John Herbert le Patourel (1909-1981)

Title: The Medieval Administration of the Channel Islands 1199-1399

Remarks:

Several decades after his death, John le Patourel remains the doyen of Channel Islands' history; his work in that area sometimes having been modified but not overall surpassed. Le Patourel was an historian of wide repute -- possibly even more so in Normandy than in England -- and the debate about the ideas advanced in his major work The Norman Empire (1976) still engages scholars. The book presented here, a version of Le Patourel's doctoral thesis, prepared under the supervision of F.M. Powicke (1879-1963), demonstrates by detailed analysis the arguments set out in its concluding chapter "the origins of self-government". From his professor's chair at Leeds University le Patourel maintained a close interest in, and fond sentiments for, his native Channel Islands, evidenced in, amongst other works, his edited work Castle Cornet Guernsey: documents relating to the Tudor reconstruction (Guernsey, 1958) and his largely unremembered service in organising the historical records in Guernsey's Greffe and supervising their listing, as Archiviste de la Cour Royale (1946-1981). No constitutional treatment of any or all the Channel Islands can avoid le Patourel's work including several articles -- for example "Jersey, Guernsey, and their environment in the middle ages" (Transactions of La Société Guernesiaise, 1975). Le Patourel received an honorary doctorate from the University of Caen in 1957 and was made a fellow of the British Academy in 1972. Edition(s) (this copy in bold): 1937 (repr. by the Guernsey Bar, 2004) Provenance of this copy: St John Robilliard Collection

Further reading:

J.H. le Patourel, The Norman Empire (Oxford 1976). Gordon Dawes, preface to the reprint of The mediaeval administration of the Channel Islands (see above) J.C. Holt, obituary in The Times, London, 1 August 1981 T. Thornton, "The Channel Islands and the courts of Westminster from the 14th to the 16th centuries" (Eleventh Joan Stevens memorial lecture, Jersey, 2017)