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.

The most recent cutting-edge scholarship on the tenth, eleventh and twelfth centuries. The essays collected here demonstrate the rich vitality of scholarship in this area. This volume has a particular focus on the interrelations between the various parts of north-western Europe. After the opening piece on Lotharingia, there are detailed studies of the relationship between Ponthieu and its Norman neighbours, and between the Norman and Angevin duke-kings and the other French nobility, followed by an investigation of the world of demons and possession in Norman Italy, with additional observations on the subject in twelfth-century England. Meanwhile, the York massacre of the Jews in 1190 is set in a wider context, showing the extent to which crusader enthusiasm led to the pogroms that so marred Anglo-Jewish relations, not just in York but elsewhere in England; and there is an exploration of poverty in London, also during the 1190s, viewed through the prism of the life and execution of William fitz Osbert. Another chapter demonstrates the power of comparative history to illuminate the norms of proprietary queenship, so often overlooked by historians of both kingship and queenship. And two essays focusing on landscape bring the physical into close association with the historical: on the equine landscape of eleventh and twelfth-century England, adding substantially to our understanding of the place of the horse in late Anglo-Saxon and early Anglo-Norman societies, and on the Brut narratives of Geoffrey of Monmouth, Wace, and Lazamon, arguing that they use realistic landscapes in their depiction of the action embedded in their tales, so demonstrating the authors' grasp of the practical realities of contemporary warfare and the role played by landscapes in it.

Wide-ranging studies offer an in-depth analysis of castle-building 11th - 12th centuries and place castles within their broader social and political context. The castles of the eleventh and twelfth centuries remain among the most visible symbols of the Anglo-Norman world. This collection brings together for the first time some of the most significant articles in castle studies, with contributions from experts in history, archaeology and historic buildings. Castles remain a controversial topic of academic debate and here equal weight is given to seminal articles that have defined the study of the subject while at the same time emphasising newer approaches to the fortresses of the Anglo-Norman aristocracy. The studies in this volume range from discussions of the residential and military role of the castle to architectural symbolismand royal attitudes to baronial fortification. The result is a survey that offers an in-depth analysis of castle-building during the eleventh and twelfth centuries but which also places Anglo-Norman castles within their broader social, architectural and political context. Contributors: ANN WILLIAMS, RICHARD EALES, DEREK RENN, LAWRENCE BUTLER, ROBERT HIGHAM, MARJORIE CHIBNALL, R.ALLEN BROWN, CHARLES COULSON, SIDNEY PAINTER, FREDERICK C. SUPPE, GRANT G. SIMPSON, BRUCE WEBSTER, J.R. KENYON, THOMAS McNEILL, T.A. HESLOP, PHILIP DIXON, PAMELA MARSHALL, JOHN BLAIR, CHARLES COULSON, ROBERT LIDDIARD

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.