Derek Beales

Derek Edward Dawson Beales, FBA (12 June 1931 – 10 July 2023) was a British historian. He wrote the definitive work on the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II.

Born in Felixstowe, he was educated at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he gained a BA in 1953, an MA and a PhD in 1957. He was then Professor of Modern History at Cambridge until 1997.

Works England and Italy, 1859-60 (Nelson, 1961). From Castlereagh to Gladstone, 1815-1885 (Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1969). Joseph II, Volume I: In the Shadow of Maria Theresa, 1741-1780 (Cambridge University Press, 1987). Prosperity and Plunder: European Catholic Monasteries in the Age of Revolution, 1650–1815 (Cambridge University Press, 2003). Enlightenment and Reform in 18th-Century Europe (I.B. Tauris, 2005). Joseph II, Volume II: Against the World, 1780–1790 (Cambridge University Press, 2009).