Rosamond Joscelyne Mitchell

Rosamond Joscelyne Mitchell (13 June 1902 – 19 November 1963), also known by her married name Rosamond Leys, was an English historian, writer and archivist.^[1]

Biography

Mitchell was born in Harrow-on-the-Hill in 1902, the daughter of the architect Arnold Mitchell. She studied history as an exhibition scholar at St Hugh's College, Oxford in 1921–1924. ^{[2] [3]} She earned a BLitt for her thesis, John Tiptoft , Earl of Worcester : a study in English Humanism, in 1929. ^[4]

Mitchell won the Royal Historical Society's Alexander Prize in 1936,^[5][6] and in 1938 won the British Archaeological Association's Reginald Taylor Prize. Roberto Weiss cited her in his book Humanism in England during the Fifteenth Century^[6] and she cited him in her book John Free, From Bristol to Rome in the Fifteenth Century.^[7]

In 1938 Mitchell married John Alan Leys, a market gardener and the youngest son of the barrister and novelist John Kirkwood Leys [de].^[8][9] Afterwards, she "chose not to seek an academic post".^[6] They had a son in 1941 and Mitchell helped in her husband's business until their retirement in 1951.^[10][9]

Mitchell died after a motor accident in 1963.^[3]

Bibliography

• English People of the Past, with M. J. Whicher (Longmans Green, 1931)
• Life and Adventure in Medieval Europe (Longmans Green, 1934)
• Ye Goode Olde Dayes, with Ierne L. Plunket (Methuen, 1934)
• John Tiptoft, 1427–1470 (Longmans Green, 1938)
• A History of the English People, with M. D. R. Leys (Longmans Green, 1950)
• John Free, from Bristol to Rome in the fifteenth century (Longmans Green, 1955)
• A History of London Life, with M. D. R. Leys (Longmans Green, 1958)
• The Medieval Feast (Longmans Green, 1958)
• The Medieval Tournament (Longmans Green, 1958)
• A Country Doctor in the Days of Queen Anne (Longmans Green, 1959)
• The Laurels and the Tiara: Pope Pius II, 1458–1464 (Harvill Press, 1962)
• The Spring Voyage: The Jerusalem Pilgrimage in 1458 (John Murray, 1964)