British historian and Hispanist John Elliott dies | Culture | Entertainment

British historian John Elliott, One of the most renowned Hispanists in the world, who stood out for his studies on the Spanish Empire, died this Thursday at the age of 91, they confirmed to Eph sources close to the family.

Elliott received the Prince of Asturias award in 1996 andamong other recognitions, he was awarded an honorary doctorate at universities such as Alcalá de Henares, Complutense or Carlos II.

The Hispanist was the author of what is considered to be the definitive biography of the Count-Duke of Olivares and other key books on Hispanism such as Imperial Spain O Language and empire in the Spain of Felipe IV.

Elliott died in an Oxford hospital after being recently admitted, in the same city of whose prestigious university he was professor emeritus.

The scholar was one of the last links in the legendary saga of English-speaking Hispanists in which names such as Paul Preston, Hugh Thomas, Ian Gibson o Raymond Carr.

As he repeatedly recalled throughout his life, his career was linked to Spanish historiography for more than seven decades, when, as a university student, he saw for the first time in the Prado Museum a painting of the Count-Duke of Olivares signed by Velazquez.

On that six-week tour of the peninsula, Elliott was “impressed” by Spain, and especially by the Prado Museum, which led him to turn his gaze to that country even though he had previously studied French and German.

Despite investigating, above all, the Spanish Modern Age and the roots of current conflicts, he was always an intellectual very close to his time, concerned about the crises that hit Spain, the United Kingdom and the European Union as a whole.

In an interview with EFE in 2018, Elliott declared himself very concerned about the “polarization” of Catalan society as a result of the pro-independence process and recalled that a significant part of the Catalan population defended a “double patriotism”.

He also warned in his last public appearances against populism, both left and right, for being “ideologies that are closer to fantasy than reality.”

And although he was considered one of the greatest teachers of British Hispanists, he always assured that he did not consider himself the “creator” of a school, since he preferred to focus on each historian as an individual and not as a group.

Doctorate in History from the University of Cambridge, he garnered countless awards for his work, such as the Nebrija in 1993, and left key titles such as The revolt of the Catalans, Europe at the time of Felipe II, 1559-1598 or the aforementioned biography of the Count Duke of Olivares. (I)

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