Malcolm Charles Barber (born 4 March 1943) is a British medievalist. He has been described as the world's leading living expert on the
Knights Templar. He is considered to have written the two most comprehensive books on the subject, The Trial of the Templars (1978) and The New Knighthood: A History of the Order of the Temple (1994).[1] He has been an editor for The Journal of Medieval History and written many articles on the Templars, the
Cathars, various elements of the
Crusades, and the reign of
Philip IV of France.
Biography
Born in 1943, Barber attended Walpole Grammar School in
Ealing from 1954–1961, followed by the
University of Nottingham from 1961–1966, where he received his first-class degree in 1964.[2] His post-grad studies were under Bernard Hamilton in the area of grandmasters of the Templars.[2] Barber attended the
British School at Rome from 1965–1966, then was appointed assistant lecturer at the University of Reading in 1966.[2] He received his PhD in 1968 from the University of Nottingham.[2]
Barber was a Professor of Medieval European History in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the
University of Reading in the UK, until his retirement in September 2004.
Positions
Director of the Graduate Centre for Medieval Studies at Reading, 1986–1989
British Academy Research Readership, 1989–1991
Leverhulme Research Fellowship, 1997–1998
Senior Fellowship, National Humanities Center, North Carolina, 1998–1999
Journal editor
(with P. Noble and J. Norton-Smith), Reading Medieval Studies, 1977–1985
Annual Bulletin of the Society for the Study of the Crusade and the Latin East, 1986–1990
Curry, Anne (2007). "Malcolm Barber: An Appreciation". In Housley, Norman (ed.). Knighthoods of Christ: Essays on the History of the Crusades and the Knights Templar, Presented to Malcolm Barber. Ashgate Publishing.