David Robert Starkey (born January 3, 1945) is one of England's best-known historians, and a specialist in the Tudor period. January 3 is the 3rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1945 (MCMVL) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1945 calendar). ... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: God Save the King/Queen Capital London Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq mi  Population    - 2005 est. ... A historian is someone who writes history, and history is a written accounting of the past. ... The Tudor dynasty or House of Tudor (Welsh: Tudur) was a series of five monarchs of Welsh origin who ruled England and Ireland from 1485 until 1603. ...

Biography

Starkey was the only child of poor Quaker parents in Kendal, Westmorland, England. His mother, a strong personality, had a powerful influence on Starkey's formative years; he portrays his father as a gentle, somewhat ineffectual man. He suffered from polio and a double club foot, but did well at grammar school and won a scholarship to read history at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, of which he is still a fellow. Here he came under the influence of G.R Elton. Their relationship was stormy. According to Starkey, Elton provided the stern father figure he had never had, against whom to rebel. Later in the 1980s, Starkey made a point of disputing Elton's view of the importance of Thomas Cromwell, arguing in the 1986 book Revolution Reassessed (which Starkey co-edited) that Elton's thesis about Cromwell being the author of modern government was wrong. The Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as Quakers, or Friends, is a religious community founded in England in the 17th century. ... Kendal is a small town in Cumbria, England. ... Westmorland (formerly also spelt Westmoreland, an even older spelling is Westmerland) is an area of north west England and one of the 39 historic counties of England. ... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: God Save the King/Queen Capital London Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq mi  Population    - 2005 est. ... Poliomyelitis (polio), or infantile paralysis, is a viral paralytic disease. ... Club foot. ... Grammar school can refer to various types of schools in different English-speaking countries. ... Full name Fitzwilliam College Motto Ex antiquis et novissimis optima The best of old and new Named after Fitzwilliam Museum, named after Richard Fitzwilliam, named after Fitzwilliam Street, original location Previous names Fitzwilliam Hall [Non collegiate] (1869), Fitzwilliam House [Non collegiate] (1924) Established 1966 Sister College(s) St Edmund Hall... This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Thomas Cromwell: detail from a portrait by Hans Holbein, 1532-3 Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex ( 1485 - July 28, 1540) was an English statesman, one of the most important political figures of the reign of Henry VIII of England. ...

From 1972 to 1998 Starkey taught history at the London School of Economics. During this period, he embarked on his career as a broadcaster, and soon won a reputation for abrasiveness, particularly on BBC Radio 4's The Moral Maze, a debating programme, on which he was a ruthless interrogator of "witnesses" examining contemporary moral questions. In the 1990s he presented a current affairs phone-in show on Talk Radio UK (since relaunched as talkSPORT) where his manner with callers served to bolster his rebarbative reputation. However, the programme, which he described as "three hours of brainy barney" was extremely popular. One newspaper called him "the rudest man in Britain". His rudeness and also his arrogance have been singled out by his detractors. In the televised Trial of Richard III, he appeared as a witness for the prosecution, and accused the defence counsel, Richard DuCann, of having a "small lawyer's mind". Even the Richard III Society, in its magazine The Ricardian, admitted that Starkey's rudeness under cross-examination was the main reason why Richard III was acquitted. His television series on Henry VIII of England, Elizabeth I of England, the six Wives of Henry VIII and on the lesser-known Tudor monarchs have made him a familiar face. In 2004 he began a new Channel 4 multi-year series "Monarchy," which will chronicle the history of English Kings and Queens from the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms onward. His greatest contribution to Tudor research has been in explaining the complicated social etiquette of Henry's household, exploring the complicated nature of Catherine Howard's fall in 1541/1542, and rescuing Anne Boleyn from the historical doldrums by persuasively proving that she was a committed religious reformer, keen politician and sparkling intellectual. Dr. Starkey has also rejected the historical community's tendency to portray Catherine of Aragon as a "plaster-of-Paris saint". 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ... It has been suggested that LSE Computer Security Research Centre be merged into this article or section. ... BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station which broadcasts a wide variety of chiefly spoken-word programmes including news, drama, comedy, science and history. ... The Moral Maze is a radio programme on BBC Radio 4 in which four regular panelists discuss moral and ethical issues relating to a recent news story. ... talkSPORT is the only dedicated national commercial sports and talk radio station, based in London, broadcasting to the United Kingdom providing sports talk, live commentaries, phone-in discussion and talk shows. ... Richard III (2 October 1452 – 22 August 1485) was King of England from 1483 until his death. ... For the play, see Henry VIII (play). ... Elizabeth I (7 September 1533 – 24 March 1603) was Queen of England, Queen of France (in name only), and Queen of Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. ... Catherine of Aragon The wives (queens consort) of Henry VIII of England were: 1. ... Channel 4 is a public-service television broadcaster in the United Kingdom (see British television). ... Channel 4 British TV series, 2004-ongoing, by British academic David Starkey, charting the political and ideological history of the British monarchy, from the Saxon period to modern times. ... Miniature watercolour portrait of Catherine Howard, attributed to Hans Holbein the Younger. ... Events The first official translation of the entire Bible in Swedish February 12 - Pedro de Valdivia founds Santiago de Chile. ... Events War resumes between Francis I of France and Emperor Charles V. This time Henry VIII of England is allied to the Emperor, while James V of Scotland and Sultan Suleiman I are allied to the French. ... A portrait of Anne Boleyn painted some years after her death. ... The recently-widowed young Catherine of Aragon, by Henry VIIs court painter, Michael Sittow, c. ...

In October 2006 he started hosting the second series of The Last Word now known as Starkey's Last Word He also makes regular radio broadcasts and contributes to many magazines and newspapers. Starkey, who is openly gay, is a prominent campaigner for gay rights. He is also an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society. He currently lives in Barham, near Canterbury, Kent. The National Secular Society is an organisation of the United Kingdom which promotes secularism. ... Statistics Population: 42,258 (2001) Ordnance Survey OS grid reference: TR145575 Administration District: City of Canterbury Shire county: Kent Region: South East England Constituent country: England Sovereign state: United Kingdom Other Ceremonial county: Kent Historic county: Kent Services Police force: Kent Police Ambulance service: South East Coast Post office and... Kent is a county in England, south-east of London. ...

Somewhat confusingly, there is another British historian named David Starkey. He is a specialist in eighteenth and nineteenth-century British maritime history, and teaches at the University of Hull. The University of Hull, also known as Hull University, is an English university located in Hull (or Kingston upon Hull), a city in the East Riding of Yorkshire. ...

Books

• This Land of England (1985) (with David Souden)
• The Reign of Henry VIII: Personalities and Politics (1986)
• Revolution Reassessed: Revisions in the History of Tudor Government and Administration (1986) (Editor with Chrisopher Coleman)
• The English Court from the Wars of the Roses to the Civil War (1987)
• The Inventory of Henry VIII: Volume 1 (1988)
• Henry VIII: A European Court in England (1991)
• Elizabeth: Apprenticeship (2000) (published in North America as Elizabeth: The struggle for the throne)
• The Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII (2003)
• The Monarchy of England (2006)

References

• Snowman, Daniel "David Starkey" pages 26 – 28 from History Today, Volume 51, Issue 1, January 2001.

David Starkey is also a senior lecturer at Portsmouth University. [1]