This volume honours the work and writings of Professor Sir John Baker over the past fifty years, presenting a collection of essays by leading scholars on topics relating to the sources of English legal history, the study of which Sir John has so much advanced. The essays range from the twelfth century to the nineteenth, considering courts (central and local), the professions (both common law and civilian), legal doctrine, learning, practice, and language, and the cataloguing of legal manuscripts. The sources addressed include court records, reports of litigation (in print and in manuscript), abridgements, fee books and accounts, conveyances and legal images. The volume advances understanding of the history of the common law and its sources, and by bringing together essays on a range of topics, approaches and periods, underlines the richness of material available for the study of the history of English law and indicates avenues for future research.

A multi-disciplinary approach to two of the most important legal institutions of the Middle Ages. The wars waged by the English in France during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries led to the need for judicial agencies which could deal with disputes that arose on land and sea, beyond the reach of indigenous laws. This led to the jurisdictional development of the Courts of Chivalry and Admiralty, presiding over respectively heraldic and maritime disputes. They were thus of considerable importance in the Middle Ages; but they have attracted comparatively little scholarly attention. The essays here examine their officers, proceedings and the wider cultural and political context in which they had jurisdiction and operated in later medieval Western Europe. They reveal similarities in personnel, institutions and outlook, as well as in the issues confronting rulers in territories across Europe. They also demonstrate how assertions of sovereignty and challenges to judicial competence were inextricably linked to complex political agendas; and that both military and maritime law were international in reach because they were underpinned by trans-national customs and the principles and procedures of Continental civil law. Combininglaw with military and maritime history, and discussing the art and material culture of chivalric disputes as well as their associated heraldry, the volume provides fresh new insights into an important area of medieval life and culture. ANTHONY MUSSON is Head of Research at Historic Royal Palaces; NIGEL RAMSAY is Honorary Senior Research Associate in the Department of History at University College London. Contributors: Andrew Ayton, Richard Barber, John Ford, Laurent Hablot, Thomas K. Heeboll-Holm, Julian Luxford, Ralph Moffat, Philip Morgan, Bertrand Schnerb, Anne F. Sutton, Lorenzo Tanzini.

This volume honours the work and writings of Professor Sir John Baker over the past fifty years, presenting a collection of essays by leading scholars on topics relating to the sources of English legal history, the study of which Sir John has so much advanced. The essays range from the twelfth century to the nineteenth, considering courts (central and local), the professions (both common law and civilian), legal doctrine, learning, practice, and language, and the cataloguing of legal manuscripts. The sources addressed include court records, reports of litigation (in print and in manuscript), abridgements, fee books and accounts, conveyances and legal images. The volume advances understanding of the history of the common law and its sources, and by bringing together essays on a range of topics, approaches and periods, underlines the richness of material available for the study of the history of English law and indicates avenues for future research.

Papers in Honour of Martin Biddle and Birthe Kjolbye-Biddle. Contents: Preface (Martin Henig and Nigel Ramsay); Martin Biddle and Birthe Kjolbye-Biddle: An Appreciation (Martin Henig, Thomas Beaumont James, Anthony King and Nigel Ramsay); List of Publications of Martin Biddle and of Birthe Kjolbye-Biddle (Compiled by Anthony King); Commendation by Queen Margrethe II of Denmark; 1) A Roman Silver Jug with Biblical Scenes from the Treasure found at Traprain Law (Kenneth Painter); 2) Hand-washing and Foot-washing, Sacred and Secular, in Late Antiquity and the Early Medieval Period (Anthea Harris and Martin Henig); 3) Christian Origins at Gloucester: A Topographical Inquiry (Carolyn Heighway); 4) New Evidence for the Transition from the Late Roman to the Saxon Period at St Martin-in-the-Fields, London (Alison Telfer); 5) Ethnic Identity and the Origins, Purpose and Occurrence of Pattern-Welded Swords in Sixth-Century Kent: The Case of the Saltwood Cemetery (Brian Gilmour);"