Life[edit]

Reynolds was born in London, the daughter of a solicitor, and after Howell’s School, Denbigh took a first degree at Lady Margaret Hall ("LMH"), at the University of Oxford. Her first job was as an archivist at the Middlesex County Record Office. A year later she joined the Victoria County History as an editor, remaining there for seven years and taking a diploma in archival administration.^[3] In an interview for the Institute of Historical Research, Reynolds pointed out that the archival diploma was her only higher qualification; she never gained either an MA or a PhD in history, but had only a bachelor's degree.^[3]


She taught at girls' schools from before 1960 to 1964, when she was unexpectedly offered a fellowship over lunch at her old college, Lady Margaret Hall. After she took early retirement from LMH in 1986, the Institute of Historical Research, British Library and other libraries became the places where she worked regularly.^[2] After a year teaching at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, she lived in London, with summers mostly spent in France. She continued to research and was involved with the Institute of Historical Research.^[1]


Reynolds believed that the technical terms used in documents prior to around 1100 did not necessarily hold the meanings ascribed to them by historians who had preceded her; and that clerks of later periods tended to read into earlier documents meanings and relationships current in their own day. In her view, direct ownership of land was more prevalent in the early Middle Ages than had been thought, and the decline of central authority had been exaggerated.


She was elected to the British Academy in 1993.^[1] She was an Emeritus Fellow of LMH.