Derek Edward Dawson Beales, FBA (12 June 1931 – 10 July 2023) was a British historian.^[1] He wrote the definitive work on the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II.^[2]

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.^[1] He was appointed a Fellow of Sidney Sussex in 1955 and a University Lecturer in History in 1965, which he held until 1980.^[3] He was then Professor of Modern History at Cambridge until 1997.^[3]

Beales was editor of The Historical Journal from 1971 until 1975.^[1] From 1984 until 1987 he was a member of the council of the Royal Historical Society.^[1] In 1989 he was elected a fellow of the British Academy.^[3]

Derek Beales died on 10 July 2023, at the age of 92.^[4]

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).