Anglo-Norman aristocratic patronage of Anglo-Saxon monasteries in post-Conquest England examined. Although the Norman Conquest of 1066 swept away most of the secular and ecclesiastical leaders of pre-Conquest England, it held some positive aspects for English society, such as its effects on Anglo-Saxon monastic foundations, which this study explores. The first part deals in depth with five individual case studies (Abingdon, Gloucester, Bury St Edmunds, St Albans and St Augustine's, Canterbury) as well as Fenland and other houses, showing how despite mixed fortunes the major houses survived to become the richest in England. The second part places the experiences of the houses in the context of structural changes in religious patronage as well as within the social and political nexus of the Anglo-Norman realm. Dr Cownie analyses the pattern of gifts to religious houses on both sides of the Channel, looking at the reasons why they were made. EMMA COWNIE gained her Ph.D. from the University of Wales at Cardiff.

Articles on the significance of genealogy and kinship ties in determining political events in the middle ages. In recent decades historians have become increasingly aware of the value of prosopography as an auxiliary science standing at the crossroads between anthropology, genealogy, demography and social history. It is now developing as an independent research discipline of real benefit to medievalists. The geographically and chronologically wide-ranging subjects of the essays in this collection, by scholars from the British Isles and the Continent, are united bya common theme, namely the significance of genealogy and kinship ties in determining political events in the middle ages. The papers, including a review of the history of prosopography and some of its major successes as a method by Karl Ferdinand Werner, range from general considerations of prosopographical and genealogical methodology (including discussion of Anglo-Norman royal charters) to specific analyses of individual political and kinship groups (including the genealogy of the counts of Anjou and a rehabilitation of the prosopographical material in Wace's Roman de Rou). The main geographic focus is England and France from the tenth to the twelfth centuries, but other areas as diverse as Celtic Ireland and the Latin Principality of Antioch also come under prosopographical scrutiny. Contributors: DAVID E. THORNTON, ANNE WILLIAMS, C.P. LEWIS, DAVID BATES, ELISABETH VAN HOUTS, EMMA COWNIE, JUDITH GREEN, JOHN S. MOORE, K.S.B. KEATS-ROHAN, CHRISTIAN SETTIPANI, HUBERT GUILLOTEL, KATHLEEN THOMPSON, VERONIQUE GAZEAU, MICHEL BUR, ALAN V. MURRAY, DANIEL POWER.

The essays in this volume derive in the main, though not exclusively, from the 13th annual conference held in Houston in November 1994. Written by an international group of scholars, they centre on the history of England and its neighbours during the Anglo-Saxon, Viking, Anglo-Norman and Angevin periods. Of particular interest is a wide-ranging and well-illustrated article on medieval bridges; other topics include the Anglo-Norman patrons of Bury St Edmunds, Anglo-Welsh relations before 1066, the legal status of the Britons in seventh-century Wessex, and the Hundred Rolls. There is also a particular focus on the roles played by women, with articles on Henry I's queen Adeliza of Louvain, and the Anglo-Norman countesses of Chester.Dr C.P. LEWIS teaches in the Department of History at the University of Liverpool; Dr EMMA COWNIE teaches in the Department of History, King's College, London. Contents and Contributors: EMMA COWNIE, NICHOLAS BROOKS, LOUIS M. ALEXANDER, JOHNR.E. BLIESE, FREDERICK C. SUPPE, W. SCOTT JESSEE, H.B. TEUNIS, JULIE POTTER, LAURA WERTHEIMER, SUSAN JOHNS, R.H. HELMHOLZ, S.F.C. MILSOM, DAVID ROFFE.

The question of what constitutes good and bad rulership in the central middle ages, in both theory and practice, is the linking theme in this latest volume of the Haskins Society Journal. The nine complementary papers range widely across the Carolingian world, Norman and Angevin England and southern Italy, and the Latin East, exploring contemporary attitudes to rule and rulers (especially kings), and the methods and symbolism of ruling, as well as the reputations of individual kings in modern historiography. Dr C.P. LEWIS teaches in the Department of History at the University of Liverpool; Dr EMMA COWNIE teaches in the Department of History, King's College, London. Contributors: JANET L. NELSON, STEPHANIE MOOERS CHRISTELOW, JEAN A. TRUAX, RALPH V. TURNER, BROCK W. HOLDEN, EMILIE AMT, G.A. LOUD, DAVID ABULAFIA, DEBORAH GERISH