Essays exploring and problematizing the idea of an 'exceptional' England within Western Europe during the long thirteenth century.

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

The twin themes of authority and resistance are the focus of this volume, explored through topics such as landholding and secular politics, the church and religious orders and contemporary imagery andits reception. Together, the papers combine to illustrate the variety of ways in which historians of the "long" thirteenth century are able to examine the practices and norms through which individuals and institutions sought to establish their authority, and the ways in which these were open to challenge.

Janet Burton is Professor of Medieval History at University of Wales: Trinity Saint David; Phillipp Schofield is Professor of Medieval History at Aberystwyth University; Björn Weiler is Professor of History at Aberystwyth University

Contributors: Helen Birkett, RichardCassidy, Judith Collard, Peter Coss, Ian Forrest, Philippa Hoskin, Jennifer Jahner, Melissa Julian Jones, Fergus Oakes, John Sabapathy, Sita Steckel

The articles collected here reflect the continued and wide interest in England and its neighbours in the years between Magna Carta and the Black Death, with many of them particularly seeking to set England in its European context. There are three main strands to the volume. The first is the social dimension of power, and the norms and practice of politics: attention is drawn to the variety of roles open to members of the clergy, but also peasants and townsmen, and the populace at large. Several chapters explore the manifestations and instruments of social identity, such as the seals used by the leading elites of thirteenth-century London, and the marriage practices of the English aristocracy. The third main focus is the uses of the past. Matthew Paris, the most famous chronicler of the period, receives due attention, in particular his changing attitude towards the monarch, but the Vita Edwardi Secundi's portrayal of Thomas of Lancaster and the Anglo-Norman Prose Brut are also considered. Janet Burton is Professor of Medieval History at University of Wales: Trinity Saint David; Phillipp Schofield is Professor of Medieval History at Aberystwyth University; Björn Weiler is Professor of History at Aberystwyth University. Contributors: J.R. Maddicott, Philllipp Schofield, Harmony Dewez, John McEwan, Jörg Peltzer, Karen Stöber, Olga Cecilia Méndez González, Sophie Ambler, Joe Creamer, Lars Kjær, Andrew Spencer, Julia Marvin, Olivier de Laborderie

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, William Marx, Caroline Dunn, Adrian Jobson, Adrian R. Bell, Chris Brooks, Tony K. Moore, David A. Trotter, William Chester Jordan, Daniel Power, Florent Lenègre