Peter FrankopanFRHistS (born 22 March 1971)^[1] is a British historian, writer, and hotelier. He is a professor of global history atWorcester College, Oxford, and the Director of the Oxford Centre for Byzantine Research. He is a fellow of theRoyal Asiatic Society.^[2] He is best known for his 2015 bookThe Silk Roads.

Peter Frankopan FRHistS
Frankopan in 2019
Born	(1971-03-22)22 March 1971 (age 54) England
Occupation(s)	Historian and academic
Spouse	Jessica Sainsbury
Parent	Ingrid Detter de Frankopan
Relatives	Lady Nicholas Windsor(sister)
Academic background
Education	Eton College
Alma mater	Jesus College, Cambridge Corpus Christi College, Oxford
Thesis	The foreign policy of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos (1081-c.1100) (1998)
Doctoral advisor	James Howard-Johnston
Academic work
Discipline	History
Sub-discipline	Middle Ages Late antiquity History of the Byzantine Empire Crusades
Institutions	Worcester College, Oxford

Frankopan is the second of five children born toCroatian Louis Doimi de Frankopan (1939–2018) and Swedish-born barrister and professor of international lawIngrid Detter. His elder sister isLady Nicholas Windsor.^[3] His father is Louis Doimi de Lupis, whoclaimed to be a member of the Frankopan family.

He attendedEton College^[4] and then received a degree inByzantine history fromJesus College, Cambridge, before getting hisD.Phil atCorpus Christi College, Oxford. He is a senior research fellow atWorcester College, Oxford, and director of the Oxford Centre for Byzantine Research.^[5]

His areas of focus are the history of theByzantine Empire, theMediterranean, theBalkans, theCaucasus, andRussia, as well as the interdependence ofIslam andChristianity. He has also studiedGreek literature of theMiddle Ages.^[6]

Frankopan's first book of history,The First Crusade: The Call from the East, was published in 2012.^[7] The book received a five-star review fromNicholas Shakespeare inThe Telegraph. He called it a "persuasive and bracing work" and said: "Peter Frankopan is not yet well known, but he deserves to be."^[8]Michael Dirda, inThe Washington Post, praised this "carefully researched book."^[9]Thomas F. Madden, specialist on the Crusades, seems more critical:

There are today so many histories of the First Crusade jostling for shelf space that new authors are forced to find ways to differentiate theirs from all of the others. In some cases this has led to genuinely innovative approaches; in others, rather awkward attempts at novelty have resulted. This is one of the latter.^[10]

In 2015, Frankopan's bookThe Silk Roads: A New History of the World was published. Writing in theTelegraph,Bettany Hughes praised it as a "charismatic and essential book",^[11] whileAnthony Sattin, writing inThe Guardian, called it "ambitious" and "full of insight but let down by factual errors".^[12] Frankopan's follow-up book,The New Silk Roads: The Present and Future of the World (Bloomsbury Publishing), was published in 2018.

In March 2023, Bloomsbury published Frankopan'sThe Earth Transformed: An Untold History, described as a history of the world, written from a fundamentally environmental perspective. It was reviewed inThe New York Review of Books byChristopher de Bellaigue.^[13]

In 2002, Frankopan and his wife Jessica opened Cowley Manor, aboutique hotel and spa on a historic estate in theCotswolds. They have since expanded their hotel chain, which they named A Curious Group of Hotels, to include the Portobello Hotel inLondon, Canal House inAmsterdam and L'Hotel Paris inParis.^[14] The restaurant in L'Hotel Paris has been awarded aMichelin star.^[15]

Frankopan played for theCroatian national cricket team. In 2015, he said "That’s the achievement I’m proudest of – playing cricket for my country."^[5] He also plays for theAuthors XIcricket team with other British writers and contributed a chapter to the book that team members collectively wrote about their first season playing together,The Authors XI: A Season of English Cricket from Hackney to Hambledon (2013).^[16]

Frankopan and his wife Jessica, daughter ofSir Tim Sainsbury, have four children and live inOxford.^[4] Together, they oversee a £14 million trust funded by her family's supermarket fortune.^[15]

• The First Crusade: The Call from the East. Belknap Press. 2012.ISBN 9780674059948.^[17]
• The Silk Roads: A New History of the World. Bloomsbury. 2015.ISBN 9781408839973.^[12]
• The New Silk Roads: The Present and Future of the World. Bloomsbury. 2018.ISBN 9781526607423.^[18]
• The Silk Roads: An Illustrated New History of the World. Bloomsbury. 2018.ISBN 9781408889930.^[19]
• The Earth Transformed: An Untold History, Bloomsbury, ISBN 9781526622563, 2023^[20]

• The Hippodrome of Constantinople
• The Statues of Constantinople
• Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception
• The Chora Church of Constantinople

• Frankopan's personal website
• Frankopan's page at the Faculty of History of the University of Oxford