Expert coverage and new assessments of the reign of King Stephen, set in social, political and European context. The turbulent reign of King Stephen is here subjected to a full assessment by leading scholars in the field. All of the most important aspects are fully covered: the impact of developments under Henry I on the origins of civil war; relations with the continent, as they affected Stephen's overall strategy and the foundation of religious houses; the opportunities which lured foreign mercenaries to England; mid-twelfth century legal developments and trends inrevenue-raising; baronial and episcopal allegiances; violent disorder and civil unrest; and the sequence of events which unfolded during the political crisis of July 1141. Taken together, they provide the fruits of the most recent research into and the most up to date interpretations of the intense political and military activity of the reign. CONTRIBUTORS: MARJORIE CHIBNALL, JUDITH GREEN, DAVID CROUCH, JANET BURTON, THOMAS BISSON, BRUCE O'BRIEN, GRAEME WHITE, PAUL DALTON, STEPHEN MARRITT, HUGH THOMAS, EDMUND KING

The cataclysmic conquests of the eleventh century are here set together for the first time. Eleventh-century England suffered two devastating conquests, each bringing the rule of a foreign king and the imposition of a new regime. Yet only the second event, the Norman Conquest of 1066, has been credited with the impact and influence of a permanent transformation. Half a century earlier, the Danish conquest of 1016 had nonetheless marked the painful culmination of decades of raiding and invasion - and more importantly, of centuries of England's conflict and cooperation with the Scandinavian world - and the Normans themselves were a part of that world. Without 1016, the conquest of 1066 could never have happened as it did: and yet disciplinary fragmentation in the study of eleventh-century England has ensured that a gulf separates the conquests in modern scholarship. The essays in this volume offer multidisciplinary perspectives on a century of conquest: in politics, law, governance, and religion; in art, literature, economics, and culture; and in the lives and experiences of peoples in a changing, febrile, and hybrid society. Crucially, it moves beyond an insular perspective, placing England within its British, Scandinavian, and European contexts; and in reaching across conquests connects the tenth century and earlier with the twelfth century and beyond, seeing the continuities in England's Anglo-Saxon, Danish, Norman, and Angevin elite cultureand rulership. The chapters break new ground in the documentary evidence and give fresh insights into the whole historical landscape, whilst fully engaging with the importance, influence, and effects of England's eleventh-centuryconquests, both separately and together. LAURA ASHE is Professor of English Literature and Fellow and Tutor in English, Worcester College, Oxford; EMILY JOAN WARD is Moses and Mary Finley Research Fellow, Darwin College, Cambridge. Contributors: Timothy Bolton, Stephanie Mooers Christelow, Julia Crick, Sarah Foot, John Gillingham, Charles Insley, Catherine Karkov, Lois Lane, Benjamin Savill, Peter Sigurdson Lunga, Niels Lund, Rory Naismith, Bruce O'Brien, Rebecca Thomas, Elizabeth M. Tyler, Elisabeth van Houts, Emily Joan Ward.