The Wiles Lectures that underpin this book were inspired by the sight of hundreds of thousands of refugees walking across Europe, which led me to create a lecture on townswomen. Every project of research is a journey of unexpected discoveries, and so this has been. We began with an appreciation of the urban landscape of Europe after 1000, with its areas of extensive and long-standing urbanisation in the south and the wave of new foundations north of the Alps. We have witnessed communities of strangers coming together in tentative sworn associations to create communes and appoint officials. Cities won freedoms from local rulers, and with these came responsibilities; so they developed rules and procedures to ensure the safety and flourishing of their communities. And since growing commerce and manufacture required both skilled and less-skilled workers, and attracted those who sought the opportunities of urban life, rules about entry and settlement soon had to be formulated, stated, and enforced. Those who lived in towns and cities reflected a great deal on the arrival of newcomers and the settlement of strangers. The reception of new residents was an act of trust, carefully considered, and always conditional. Town councils and magistrates recognised that the movement of people into their communities was an utter necessity, but also a risk.