Studies on the cultural, social, political and economic history of the age. This collection presents new and original research on the long thirteenth century, from c.1180-c.1330, including England's relations with Wales and Ireland. The range of topics embraces royal authority and its assertion and limitation, the great royal inquests and judicial reform of the reign of Edward I, royal manipulation of noble families, weakening royal administration at the end of the century, sex and love in the upper levels of society, monastic/layrelations, and the administration of building projects. Contributors: RUTH BLAKELY, NICOLA COLDSTREAM, BETH HARTLAND, CHARLES INSLEY, ANDY KING, SAMANTHA LETTERS, JOHN MADDICOTT, MARC MORRIS, ANTHONY MUSSON, DAVIDA. POSTLES, MICHAEL PRESTWICH, SANDRA G. RABAN, BJORN WEILER, JOCELYN WOGAN-BROWNE, ROBERT WRIGHT. THE EDITORS are all in the Department of History, University of Durham.

Essays looking at the links between England and Europe in the long thirteenth century.

Papers on aspects of the growth of royal government during the century. The size and jurisdiction of English royal government underwent sustained development in the thirteenth century, an understanding of which is crucial to a balanced view of medieval English society. The papers here follow three central themes: the development of central government, law and justice, and the crown and the localities. Examined within this framework are bureaucracy and enrolment under John and his contemporaries; the Royal Chancery; the adaptation of the Exchequer in response to the rapidly changing demands of the crown; the introduction of a licensing system for mortmain alienations; the administration of local justice; women as sheriffs; and a Nottinghamshire study examining the tensions between the role of the king as manorial lord and as monarch. Contributors: NICK BARRATT, PAUL R. BRAND, DAVID CARPENTER, DAVID CROOK, ANTHONY MUSSON, NICHOLAS C. VINCENT, LOUISE WILKINSON

Essays reflecting the most recent research on the thirteenth century, with a timely focus on the Treaty of Paris. Additional editors: Karen Stöber, Björn Weiler The articles collected here bear witness to the continued and wide interest in England and its neighbours in the "long" thirteenth century. The volume includes papers on the high politics of the thirteenth century, international relations, the administrative and governmental structures of medieval England and aspects of the wider societal and political context of the period. A particular theme of the papers is Anglo-French political history, and especially the ways in which that relationship was reflected in the diplomatic and dynastic arrangements associated with the Treaty of Paris, the 750th anniversary of which fell during 2009, a fact celebrated in this collection of essays and the Paris conference at which the original papers were first delivered. Contributors: Caroline Burt, Julie E. Kanter, Julia Barrow, Benjamin L. Wild, WilliamMarx, Caroline Dunn, Adrian Jobson, Adrian R. Bell, Chris Brooks, Tony K. Moore, David A. Trotter, William Chester Jordan, Daniel Power, Florent Lenègre

Aspects of the political, social, cultural, economic and ecclesiastical history of medieval England re-examined. This collection presents new and original research into the long thirteenth century, from c.1180-c.1330, with a particular focus on the reign of Edward II and its aftermath. Other topics examined include crown finances, markets and fairs, royal stewards, the aftermath of the Barons' War, Wace's Roman de Brut, and authority in Yorkshire nunneries; and the volume also follows the tradition of the series by looking beyond England, with contributions onthe role of Joan, wife of Llywelyn the Great in Anglo-Welsh relations, Dublin, and English landholding in Ireland, while the continental connection is represented by a comparison of aspects of English and French kingship. Contributors: David Carpenter, Nick Barratt, Emilia Jamroziak, Michael Ray, Susan Stewart, Louise J. Wilkinson, Sean Duffy, Beth Hartland, Francoise Le Saux, Henry Summerson, Janet Burton, H.S.A. Fox, David Crook, Margo Todd, Seymour Phillips

Examines how thirteenth-century clergymen used pastoral care - preaching, sacraments and confession - to increase their parishioners' religious knowledge, devotion and expectations.

In Religious Education in Thirteenth-Century England, Andrew Reeves examines how laypeople in a largely illiterate and oral culture learned the basic doctrines of the Christian religion. Although lay religious life is often assumed to have been a tissue of ignorance and superstition, this study shows basic religious training to have been broadly available to laity and clergy alike. Reeves examines the nature, availability and circulation of sermon manuscripts as well as guidebooks to Christian teachings written for both clergy and literate laypeople. He shows that under the direction of a vigorous and reforming episcopate and aided by the preaching of the friars, clergy had a readily available toolkit to instruct their lay flocks.