‘Society in an Age of Plague’, the theme of the Fifteenth Century Conference of September 2011, and consequently of the present volume of The Fifteenth Century, emerged from Carole Rawcliffe's long-held fascination with the history of medicine, and her more recent interest in public health and the ways in which medieval societies responded to the threat of disease. Highlights of the conference, assembled under her expert direction at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, included tours of the Great Hospital (a venue entirely appropriate to the theme) and Dragon Hall, a reception in the Hostry of Norwich Cathedral and dinner in the Cathedral Refectory, all serving to enhance a thoroughly enjoyable and memorable occasion. We would like to express our warm appreciation to everyone involved in the organization of the conference, and extend particular thanks to the Master and staff of the Hospital for giving us a splendid welcome.

Ten of the nineteen papers presented at the conference are published in this present volume, while Samantha Harper's, which examined the fraught relations between Henry VII and the merchant companies of London, appeared in 2012 in volume XI of The Fifteenth Century, and Paul Cavill's on James Hobart and the clergy of Norwich diocese was published in the Journal of Legal History.