The relations between medieval East Anglia and countries across the North Sea examined from a variety of perspectives. East Anglia was a distinctive English region during the Middle Ages, but it was one that owed much of its character and identity to its place in a much wider "North Sea World" that stretched from the English Channel to Iceland, the Baltic and beyond. Relations between East Anglia and its maritime neighbours have for the most part been peaceful, involving migration and commercial, artistic, architectural and religious exchanges, but have also at times beencharacterised by violence and contestation. All these elements have played a significant role in processes of historical change that have shaped the history both of East Anglia and its North Sea world. This collection of essays discusses East Anglia in the context of this maritime framework and explores the extent to which there was a distinctive community bound together by the shared frontier of the North Sea during the Middle Ages. It brings together the work of a range of international scholars and includes contributions from the disciplines of history, archaeology, art history and literary studies. David Bates is Professorial Fellow in History at the Universityof East Anglia, Robert Liddiard is Professor of History at the University of East Anglia. Contributors: Anna Agnarsdottir, Brian Ayers, Wendy R. Childs, Lynda Dennison, Stephen Heywood, Carole Hill, John Hines, David King, Robert Liddiard, Rory Naismith, Eljas Oksanen, Richard Plant, Aleksander Pluskowski, Christopher Scull, Tim Pestell, Charles West, Gareth Williams, Tom Williamson.

The relations between medieval East Anglia and countries across the North Sea examined from a variety of perspectives. East Anglia was a distinctive English region during the Middle Ages, but it was one that owed much of its character and identity to its place in a much wider "North Sea World" that stretched from the English Channel to Iceland, the Baltic and beyond. Relations between East Anglia and its maritime neighbours have for the most part been peaceful, involving migration and commercial, artistic, architectural and religious exchanges, but have also at times beencharacterised by violence and contestation. All these elements have played a significant role in processes of historical change that have shaped the history both of East Anglia and its North Sea world. This collection of essays discusses East Anglia in the context of this maritime framework and explores the extent to which there was a distinctive community bound together by the shared frontier of the North Sea during the Middle Ages. It brings together the work of a range of international scholars and includes contributions from the disciplines of history, archaeology, art history and literary studies. Professor David Bates is Professorial Fellow in History, RobertLiddiard is Professor of History, at the University of East Anglia. Contributors: Anna Agnarsdottir, Brian Ayers, Wendy R. Childs, Lynda Dennison, Stephen Heywood, Carole Hill, John Hines, David King, Robert Liddiard,Rory Naismith, Eljas Oksanen, Richard Plant, Aleksander Pluskowski, Christopher Scull, Tim Pestell, Charles West, Gareth Williams, Tom Williamson.

In 2003 archaeologists discovered an intact princely burial between busy Priory Crescent and the railway line near Priory Park in Prittlewell. A find of international significance, this is the richest and most important Anglo-Saxon burial found since the 1939 discovery of the great ship burial at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk. The lavishly furnished wooden chamber beneath a mound contained the coffin of a high-status man, evidently a Christian, who died at the end of the 6th century AD. The results of years of study of the excavated evidence are described and illustrated here to provide an account of the burial and the grave goods, and the information they give us about the East Saxon kingdom, where the man lived, and its contacts with Kent, Francia and the Christian Mediterranean.