Charles Ross (historian)

Charles Derek Ross (1924 – 1986) was an English historian of the Late Middle Ages. Originally from Yorkshire, he earned a DPhil from Oxford University and worked as a lecturer, researcher and ultimately professor at the University of Bristol from 1947 until his death in 1986. Specialising in the medieval English nobility, gentry and royal family, he is considered the major propagator of K. B. McFarlane's ideas on bastard feudalism and published widely on a plethora of subjects ranging from the biographies of kings to the cartularies of minor abbeys.

Early life
Ross was born in Wakefield to Florence Ross and her husband and was educated at the grammar school. He began reading History at Brasenose College, Oxford in 1942. This was followed by doctoral studies under K. B. McFarlane—"whose work was then transforming historical understanding of later medieval England"—and Ross's resultant DPhil was entitled The Yorkshire Baronage, 1399–1425.

Career
Following his doctorate, Ross began working at the University of Bristol, where he would remain for the rest of his academic life, in 1947. Originally appointed Assistant Lecturer, he worked beneath David Douglas. Ross's final position at Bristol was as Professor of Medieval History, with a personal chair.

Originally teaching alongside Margaret Sharp (daughter of T.F. Tout), he became reader and then Professor of Medieval History

Ross took early retirement in 1982 but maintained close ties with the University and continued his research. Indeed, he had contracted to write another book shortly before his death, and was attempting to give up drinking to that end.

Publishing
Ross published predominantly on the history of the later medieval English nobility, royalty and the Wars of the Roses. His biographies of Edward IV from 1974, and Richard III seven years later were described by The Times as respectively "scholarly and detailed" and perceptive". They fused easy reading, suitable for a general readership, with the minute approach to detail and sourcing required in a high-end piece of scholarship. The historian DeLloyd J. Guth concluded that the biography was "in the best tradition" of McFarlane, and left the previous work—Cora Scofield's 1926 biography—"flounder[ing] in a wealth of facts and episodes". Although Colin Richmond believed that it remained less an achievement than Scofield's—if only because it had greater and more plentiful scholarship to work upon—he praised Ross's analysis of political tension. King Edward IV was one of Ross's main royal interests. The other was Richard III. Before Ross's biography, Edward was seen as a generally successful, relatively modern king, and a worthy precursor to Henry VII, after Ross questioned "Edward’s newly enhanced reputation, the king’s prestige has once more been considerably set back". Ross appreciated the king in a particularly new way. Ross also edited several volumes of essays. For example, in 1970, Ross, Stanley Chrimes and Ralph Griffiths edited the papers presented at the 1970 medieval history colloquium in Cardiff. His friendship with the Gloucestershire publisher Alan Sutton allowed him to publish several books, including a compilation of his students' and colleagues' 1978 Bristol papers, again under his editorship.

Personal life and death
Ross was married twice. His first marriage, to Frances, lasted 23 years; she subsequently moved to Swansea. They had two children, Christopher—born shortly after the war—and a daughter, Miranda. His second wife was Anne Crawford, who had been a student of his at Bristol, and with whom he had a son, James. She had agreed to a divorce from Ross in 1985, while Jefferis had separated from her husband over a decade earlier. Jefferis had also met Ross at the university when she was taking evening classes. His divorce from Crawford was made absolute shortly before his death. For about a year before then he shared his apartment with Pamela Jefferis—variously described as an insurance agent, a financial consultant and a Business consultant for Allied Dunbar—and both were now divorcees. She was later described as a "responsible and intelligent" woman. By the time Ross was due to retire, he was estranged from his second wife, who remained at their large family home in the Redland area bringing up their son alone. Ross lived in a "large, semi-detached Georgian" apartment in Clifton, in the heart of the university's housing, which he and Jefferis had bought between them in 1984. They apparently planned to marry towards the end of March but continued obstructions in their respective divorces had forced its cancellation twice. The defence suggested that it was these delays that had unbalanced Jefferis. Adding to her stress, Ross had become sicker since November 1985, which had made him harder to live with ("more petulant", it was later reported) and in April she discovered that one of her own children needed a brain scan.

Death
Ross and Jefferis spent the days before his death "drinking heavily", reported the Western Daily Press. Jefferis and Ross had stayed in the flat apart from a "brief" sojourn to a local hostelry. That evening, Thursday, 3 April 1986, at the age of 64, Ross was found dead there. The cause of death was a single stab wound in the back, which was later revealed to have pierced an artery. The day before his death furniture and clothes were thrown down the stairs, and neighbours helped Jefferis carry them back up. The following night, she was overheard crying and neighbours called the police, who broke into Ross's flat and found Jefferis next to him, "staring 'vacantly' at her hands". She did not answer questions. A 25-strong police squad carried out house to house inquiries overnight.

Jefferis, from Bishopstone, a mother of three and 42 at the time of the killing, was questioned by police on Friday night at Southmead police station, and that same morning an autopsy was performed by the Home Office pathologist. The following Monday she was remanded in custody at the Magistrates' Court for Ross's murder. On Saturday 11 July she was charged and sent to trial.

At her trial at Bristol Crown Court, Jefferis pled guilty to manslaughter on account of diminished responsibility, which plea was accepted by the prosecutor. Defence counsel argued that it was unlikely the true facts surrounding that night would ever be known, suggesting that Jefferis suffered from such emotional collapse that she had erased all memory of events, a condition recognised by psychiatrists, he claimed. The Prosecution agreed that "mystery still surrounded" those last moments because of the parties' dependency on alcohol. The court heard that she and Ross had been in a relationship—described as often "stormy", as well as "turbulent [and] violent"―since around 1972. Ross's colleagues described how on one occasion he presented to the Homeopathic Hospital with glass in his eye, after his spectacles were smashed during a fight with her; another time, "he went to work limping, saying Mrs Jefferis had driven the car at him". Furthermore, both were apparently alcoholics. Mr Justice Stuart-Smith, presiding, commented that "it is quite clear that alcoholism was at the root of this, it degraded you both... I do not suppose anyone will ever know what led you to putting that knife in him". Jefferis was said to have "cracked" under the strain the relationship put upon her; her defence said that—with the exception of her children—she had "destroyed what mattered to her... most of all". She was sent to prison for four years. A memorial service for Professor Ross was held at the Lord Mayor's Chapel on College Green on 4 July.

Influence and reputation
Ross was an archival historian. The Times described his editorial method as being based on a "meticulous concern for detail". The Times wrote after his death of his "amusing and stimulating" lecturing style and how his teaching inspired many of his students to follow his path. The university's spokesman commented on Ross's various extracurricular activities but emphasised his scholarly achievements. He had an international reputation in his field.

'The Bristol connection'
In 1978, Ross organised a symposium at Bristol with the intention of providing "an informal and friendly gathering" to allow younger scholars the opportunity to present their own papers. This symposium saw the unofficial foundation of the Bristol connection, a group of former students of Ross's and several contemporary historians. Among the former including Margaret Condon, Keith Dockray, Ralph Griffiths, Michael Hicks—"proud also to be a member of 'the Bristol connection'"—and Tony Pollard.

Ross's pupils included Michael Hicks, Anne Crawford and Ralph Griffiths. To his students he passed on the approach of McFarlane, particularly that of drawing broad social or political themes from gentry and aristocratic networks. Hicks has called Ross the "founding father" of the 'Bristol connection'.

Ross's students and colleagues intended a book of essays to be published in 1986 as a Festschrift celebrating Ross's retirement. Edited by Professor Ralph Griffiths and Mr James Sherborne, it was published after Ross's death as a memorium.

Ross's obituarist concluded that, personally, "he had a great sense of humour as well as a sharp wit, and he had a fund of good stories". his colleague, Professor Joel T. Rosenthal of SUNY, commented that "Ross's friends are also McFarlane's heirs, and that we are all Marc Bloch's grandchildren.