Eric Ives

Eric William Ives, OBE (born 12 July 1931) is a British historian and an expert on the Tudor period. He is Emeritus Professor of English History at the University of Birmingham. In 2001 he was awarded the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in recognition of his services to history.

Work

Ives is particularly noted for his work on the life of Anne Boleyn, the second wife and queen of King Henry VIII of England. His theories on her life have drawn him into fierce debate with the American historian Retha Warnicke, who wrote The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn in 1989 to challenge Ives's findings. He began researching Boleyn about 1979, eventually publishing an acclaimed biography of her in 1986. Ives's biography of Anne Boleyn was modified and expanded for re-publication in 2004 under the new title of The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn. In 2009, he published a study of Lady Jane Grey and the circumstances of her accession and downfall.

He has also written extensively on the History of Law, and the development of modern higher education. His biographical writing on Tudor courtiers covers the Welsh land-owning magnate William Brereton, who was unjustly condemned to death in 1536 on the false charge of being Anne Boleyn's lover. In 2000 the University of Birmingham Press published The First Civic University: Birmingham, 1880-1980 - An Introductory History, which he co-authored with Diane K. Drummond and Leonard Schwarz.

Bibliography

• The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn: The Most Happy (new ed. 2004)
• Lady Jane Grey: A Tudor Mystery (2009)

External Links

• Overview of publications