Jonathan Riley-Smith

Jonathan Simon Christopher Riley-Smith (27 June 1938 – 13 September 2016) was a historian of the Crusades, and, between 1994 and 2005, Dixie Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Cambridge. He was a Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He has been described as "quite simply the leading historian of the crusades anywhere in the world".

Early life Riley-Smith was the eldest of four children born into a prosperous Yorkshire brewing family. His maternal grandfather (to whose memory he later dedicated his book What Were the Crusades?) was the British Conservative Party MP, John Craik-Henderson (1890-1971). He attended Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took his BA (1960), MA (1964), PhD (1964), and LittD (2001).

He was appointed a Knight of Grace and Devotion of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and a Bailiff Grand Cross of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem.

Riley-Smith appeared in the documentary series Crusades (1995) as an historical authority. However, the series adopted the views of Steven Runciman, which were not held by Riley-Smith. The producers then edited the taped interviews so that the historians seemed to agree with Runciman. Riley-Smith said of the producers that "they made me appear to say things that I do not believe!" In 2006, he delivered the Gifford Lectures on The Crusades and Christianity at the University of Edinburgh.

Personal life Riley-Smith was a convert to Catholicism. He married Marie-Louise Field, a portrait artist, in 1968. Their three children include the singer/songwriter Polly Paulusma.

Jonathan Riley-Smith died on 13 September 2016. Marie-Louise Riley-Smith died in .