Background
He was born in Merionethshire, and educated at Bala grammar school.
He was born in Merionethshire, and educated at Bala grammar school.
He was bilingual in Welsh and English. He received a First in his degree from University College, London, where he later returned as a lecturer. He undertook a postgraduate study of the Duchy of Lancaster’s Welsh lordships in the later Middle Ages at Merton College in Oxford under the supervision of K. B. McFarlane.
In 1975 he was appointed Professor of History, University College of Wales, Aberystwyth.
In 1992 he became President of the Royal Historical Society. In 1995 he was appointed the Chichele Professor of Medieval History at the University of Oxford and made a fellow of All Souls College.
From 1995 to 2005 he served as Chairman of the Ancient Monuments Board for Wales. He is best known for his reinvigoration of Welsh medieval scholarship and as a pioneer in the study of "British History", rejecting earlier Anglo-centric treatments of the medieval histories of Britain and Ireland.
Professor Sir Rees Davies died of cancer in Oxford aged 66.
