Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People is recognized as a masterpiece among the historical literature of medieval England and Europe. Completed in 731, it comprises in a single flowing narrative a coherent history of the conversion of the English peoples to Christianity, and the story of the island kingdoms and churches from the 590s to the early eighth century, prefaced by a sketch of the earlier history of Britain. In 1969 the Clarendon Press published the new edition in Oxford Medieval Texts, edited by Bertram Colgrave and Sir Roger Mynors. Mynors's masterly text and textual introduction replaced much of Charles Plummer's great edition of 1896; but the historical notes did not attempt to match in scale and detail Plummer's second volume of commentary. To fill this gap the late Professor J. M. Wallace-Hadrill devoted the last years of his life to a new commentary, one of the finest and most mature fruits of his scholarship - more succinct than Plummer, tauter, more relevant, above all drawing together and adding to the findings of a galaxy of modern scholars. Prepared for the press by Thomas Charles-Edwards, helped by Patrick Wormald and others, this book completes the new Bede, and is prefaced by a paper characteristic of Professor Wallace-Hadrill on 'Bede and Plummer'.

Originally published in 1962, The Long-Haired Kings is split into two parts. The first is concerned with the history of France in the period of gestation, between the end of Roman imperial room in Gaul, and the emergence of medieval France in the tenth century. It is principally concerned with the Franks, their institutions, laws and writers. The second half acts as an introduction to the hitherto unpublished study of Frankish kingship and surveys Merovingian rule from its beginning in the Rhineland wastes to the metamorphosis as Carolingian rule. This book is a unique contribution to the study of medieval history and was one of the first books of its time to provide a unique study of European languages.

First published in 1957, France is a collection of essays which was originally delivered as lectures in the University of Oxford. While there is an intense interest in French history, it is still true to say that no satisfactory short history of France is available to the English reader. A single writer, or, indeed, a group of two or three writers could not hope to master the state of studies over the whole range of French history; this could only be done by a team of experts, and such a team of experts could only be found in one of our major universities. The volume which is here presented consists of twelve essays by recognized experts in particular fields, each essay being complete in itself, while together they cover the interaction of government and society over the whole range of French history from the earliest times to the 1950s. This book will be of interest to students of politics, government, history, sociology, and policy.

Originally published in 1962, The Long-Haired Kings is split into two parts. The first is concerned with the history of France in the period of gestation, between the end of Roman imperial room in Gaul, and the emergence of medieval France in the tenth century. It is principally concerned with the Franks, their institutions, laws and writers. The second half acts as an introduction to the hitherto unpublished study of Frankish kingship and surveys Merovingian rule from its beginning in the Rhineland wastes to the metamorphosis as Carolingian rule. This book is a unique contribution to the study of medieval history and was one of the first books of its time to provide a unique study of European languages.

This survey of the development of the Frankish Church under the Merovingian and Carolingian kings (approximately AD 500 - 900) is the first of its kind to appear in English. It is not a story of unimpeded advance towards the Church of medieval France but rather of painful adaptation. It takes account of unsolved problems: the reaction of the Church to heresy, to Judaism, to the Frankish ethos of marriage, and to the conversion of peoples outside Francia itself. Special attention is paid to the intellectual interests of churchmen and to the role of the vernacular in transmitting the Christian message to clergy and laity whose Latin was negligible or nil.
Much turned on the authority of a succession of rulers who combined deep piety with material needs that were inimical to the Church's position as a great landowner. The advance of the Church was thus hesitant and often baulked. What emerges is the Churchmen's increasing resolve to unite against the pressures of lay domination, and to press forward with their basic duties as converters and teachers.

In the fourth century the Roman Empire was under threat. The Barbarians were becoming a powerful force in Europe, and the Huns, the most savage of these tribesmen, were sweeping south towards the imperial frontiers. At the same time the Empire faced growing internal social and economic problems: plague and war had diminished the agricultural population and productivity was falling; the army was under increasing strain in defending the extensive boundaries. Christianity, too, continued to prove an unsettling influence - accepted and established in Constantinople, but not in Rome.
In this perceptive and stimulating book, Professor Wallace-Hadrill traces the development of Western Europe from the dissolution of the late Roman Empire to the emergence, in the tenth century, of the individual states of medieval Europe. Now in its fourth edition, The Barbarian West contains a fully revised and up-to-date bibliography.

Devoting the last years of his life to this book, Professor Wallace-Hadrill produced a new commentary, one of the finest and most mature fruits of his scholarship, more succinct, tauter, and more relevant than previous commentaries, above all drawing together and adding to the findings of a galaxy of modern scholars.