Essays on crucial aspects of late medieval history. The essays collected here, offered by three generations of his friends and pupils, celebrate the outstanding career of Professor A.J. Pollard and pay tribute to his scholarship and enduring influence in furthering our understanding of late medieval England and France. Drawing inspiration from his own research interests and writing, which illuminated military, political and social interactions of the period, they focus on three main themes. The contrasting styles of governance adopted by English monarchs from Richard II to Henry VII; the differing responses to civil conflict revealed in a variety of localities; and the lives of men recruited to fight overseas during the Hundred Years' War, and beyond the border with Scotland in later years, are all explored here. These topics take us across England from the far north to the Channel, to London, the south-west and the Welsh lordship of Gower, while on the way also examining how townsmen resisted taxation, the gentry administered their estates and the western marches were ruled.

Conspicuous consumption in the 15th century both offers causes for revolt and allows reconstruction of regional supply and trading networks. The essays in this volume focus on the sources and resources of political power, on consumption (royal and lay, conspicuous and everyday) on political revolution and on economic regulation in the later middle ages. Topics range from the diet of the nobility in the fifteenth century to the knightly household of Richard II and the peace commissions, while particular case studies, of Middlesex, Cambridge, Durham Cathedral and Winchester, shed new light on regional economies through an examination of the patterns of consumption, retailing, and marketing.Professor MICHAEL HICKS teaches at King Alfred's College at Winchester.Contributors: CHRISTOPHER WOOLGAR, ALASTAIR DUNN, SHELAGH MITCHELL, ALISON GUNDY, T.B. PUGH, JESSICA FREEMAN, JOHN HARE, JOHN LEE, MIRANDA THRELFALL-HOLMES, WINIFRED HARWOOD, PETER FLEMING.

A range of important issues in current research are debated in the latest volume in the series, with a special focus on warfare. The theme of conflict is central to the essays gathered in this volume. Apart from the renewed armed struggle with France in the final stages of the Hundred Years War, subjects covered include the theoretical foundations of the Wars of the Roses, the impact of this conflict in the provinces, the frequently strained relationship between the English, the Irish and the Welsh, and the effects of intermittent warfare between England and Scotland. Other themesthat emerge include the evolution of the English constitution, clerical practice at the centre and in the regions, and the competence (or otherwise) of Italian bankers when dealing with men at war. Contributors: JIM BOLTON, LUCY BROWN, MICHAEL BROWN, CHRISTINE CARPENTER, ANNE CURRY, GILLIAN DRAPER, PETER FLEMING, ANTHONY GOODMAN, HANNES KLEINEKE, CATHERINE NALL AND JAMES ROSS