[3][4] In his own words, his research was – and remained[5] – firmly placed within "the school of history founded by the late K. B. McFarlane ... the Master" although with a heavy "biographical bent".
[9] Originally firmly wedded to the McFarlane understanding of bastard feudalism, in which the nobility were motivated almost solely by financial and material interests, in which "self-interest, self-advantage, and self-preservation featured largely",[9] this perspective gradually evolved, by the last decade of the twentieth century, into a more "complex" understanding of the English nobility, in which their piety and religious belief, idealism and individuality are as important motives in "high politics" as material benefit.
[10] In a 2014 interview with Royal Studies Journal, he opined that, until recently, "all History was political"; but noted that there was an increasingly thematic trend to historical research.
[21] A festschrift for Michael Hicks was published in 2015 by Boydell and Brewer, and included contributions from academic colleagues and past students.
Of the former these included Caroline Barron, Anne Curry, Ralph A. Griffiths, Christopher Dyer, Tony Pollard, and James Ross.