Lord Dacre of Glanton Remembers: A Portrait of the Historian as a Young Man at Oxford in the 1930s

September/October 2007 Historically Speaking Lord Dacre of Glanton Remembers: A Portrait of the Historian as a Young Man at Oxford in the 1930s William Palmer The death of Hugh Trevor-Roper, since 1980 Lord Dacre of Glanton, on January 26, 2003, prompted me to recall the details of my brief association with him in the mid-1990s. In the fall of 1 995 I wrote him to inquire about the possibility of writing his biography. My inquiry was encased in effusive, but sincere flattery. TrevorRoper was one of the world's most famous historians , the author of numerous books, and Regius Professor of History at Oxford from 1957 to 1980. In addition to possessing a daunting erudition on a range of interests from the 17th-cenrury revolutions to the life of an English hermit in China to the last days of Hider, he was especially renowned for a beguiling prose style described by one scholar as the aesthetic equivalent of listening to Mozart. TrevorRoper was also famous for his engagement in a series of acrimonious debates with other scholars. His bold, incisive prose lent itself to controversy, and the English historical landscape was littered with the charred victims of Trevor-Roper's scorching broadsides . His involvement in controversy seemed to reveal a dark side to his character, and there was at times a ruthless quality to his criticism. Trevor-Roper often appeared to approach the work of others with the fury of a proud and embatded Norse warrior who had his own Hall of the Slain for those who failed to reach his exacting standards. Trevor-Roper trained his formidable weaponry on among others, E. H. Carr, Arnold Toynbee, and Evelyn Waugh. Waugh responded by dubbing Trevor-Roper the "demon don." A televised debate on the BBC over A.J.P. Taylor's controversial book on the origins of the Second World War almost erupted into a fistfight . Controversy even swirled around TrevorRoper 's appointment as Regius Professor. A.J.P. Taylor seemed the most qualified person for the position . His publications were immense; TrevorRoper 's were substantial, but modest by comparison. But Trevor-Roper won the post through his superior connections with the Oxford establishment. After the appointment was made, Trevor-Roper repeatedly conceded that Taylor deserved the appointment , but he was also not about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Indeed, he was often mentioned, along with Isaiah Berlin and his former tutor at Christ Church, Oxford, J. C. Masterman, as being a member of "The Club," a group of dons who exercised immense influence over Oxford appointments. In 1961 Trevor-Roper was said to have called in every favor and connection he had to secure the appointment of Harold MacMillan as chancellor of Oxford University, to repay MacMillan for appointing him as Regius Professor. A young Hugh Trevor-Roper in uniform. Courtesy of Peterhouse College, Cambridge University. Thus in 1983 few tears were shed for TrevorRoper when, prematurely and incorrectly, he pronounced the Hider diaries as authentic. Moreover, there was whispered speculation that he had completed manuscripts for two big books, one a grande d'oeurve view of Europe in the 17th century and, the second, a biography of Oliver Cromwell, both books that he appeared to have been born to write. Why had he not published them? Was he a perfectionist, as some of his friends thought? Or, as his detractors suggested, had he made so many enemies that he was afraid to publish? I waited with trepidation for Trevor-Roper to reply to my letter. He did not, I had been told, suffer fools gladly; still less American fools, I feared. A personal sketch of him, written for the New Yorkerin the early 1960s by Ved Mehta, a blind Indian student who had read history at Balliol College in the mid1950s , described a cold and humorless man. But, after considerable delay, during which I gave up hope of getting a reply, I finally received a lengthy and charming letter from him. Trevor-Roper apologized for neglecting his correspondence, claimed to be flattered by my interest in his life and work, and confessed that he had been deeply touched by my letter, with...