J. E. Neale

Neale was trained by the political historian A. F. Pollard. His first professional appointment was the chair of Modern History at the University of Manchester, and he was then to succeed F. C. Montague as Astor Professor of English History at University College London in 1927. He was to hold this post until 1956. In 1955, Neale was knighted, and on 17 November 1958 he delivered a lecture in Washington, D.C. commemorating Elizabeth I's accession to the English throne four hundred years previously. with whom he had a daughter, Stella. ==Historical views==

Neale was the leading Elizabethan historian of his generation. In the opinion of fellow historian, and Neale's own graduate student, Patrick Collinson, Neale's biography of Elizabeth I "has yet to be bettered". His painstaking research uncovered the political power of the gentry in The Elizabethan House of Commons (1949), whilst his 1948 Raleigh Lecture on ‘The Elizabethan political scene’ greatly expanded our knowledge of the politics of the reign. The two volumes on Elizabeth I and her Parliaments (1953 and 1957) explored the relationship between the Queen and her Parliaments. These were criticised by Sir Geoffrey Elton who claimed that the main preoccupation of these parliaments was the forming of Bills and the passing of Acts, not conflict between Crown and Parliament. Neale's claims that these parliaments were a landmark in the evolution of Parliament was criticised by medievalists such as J. S. Roskell. However Collinson notes that the conflicts which Neale wrote about did take place and that Neale's retelling of them made an exciting and unforgettable chapter in English history. ==Other positions held==

• Trustee of the London Museum • Member of the Editorial Board of the History of Parliament • Fellow of the British Academy • Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences ==Works==

• Queen Elizabeth (Jonathan Cape, 1934) • The Age of Catherine de Medici (Jonathan Cape, 1943) • The Elizabethan Political Scene (British Academy, 1948) • The Elizabethan House of Commons (Jonathan Cape, 1949) • Elizabeth I and her Parliaments, 1559-1581 (Jonathan Cape, 1953) vol. 1 • Elizabeth I and her Parliaments, 1584-1601 (Jonathan Cape, 1957) vol. 2 • Essays in Elizabethan History (Jonathan Cape, 1958) ==See also==