In studies ranging from Norman Sicily to Scandinavia, six focus on aspects of Scottish history. Papers discuss authenticity and forgery, royal and aristocratic values, the history of William the Conqueror and the Marshal earls. Contemporary historians' perceptions of the Jews and Byzantium complete the roll call.

This book offers a fresh perspective on the question of Scotland's relationship with Britain. It challenges the standard concept of the Scots as an ancient nation whose British identity only emerged in the early modern era.

This modern English translation of all the surviving literary compositions ascribed to Liudprand, the bishop of Cremona from 962 to 972, offers unrivaled insight into society and culture in western Europe during the "iron century."

This book presents an original perspective on the variety and intensity of biblical narrative and rhetoric in the evolution of history writing in León-Castile during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. It focuses on six Hispano-Latin chronicles, two of which make unusually overt and emphatic use of biblical texts. Of particular importance is the part played by the influence of exegesis that became integral to scriptural and liturgical influence, both in and beyond monastic institutions. Alun Williams provides close analysis of the text and comparisons with biblical typology to demonstrate how these historians from the north of Iberia were variously dependent on a growing corpus of patristic and early medieval interpretation to understand and define their world and their sense of place. Narrative, Piety and Polemic in Medieval Spain sees Williams examine this material as part of a comparative exploration of language and religious allusion, showing how the authors used these biblical-liturgical elements to convey historical context, purpose and interpretation.

The stigmatisation as 'bastards' of children born outside of wedlock is commonly thought to have emerged early in medieval European history, but Sara McDougall demonstrates that until well into the late 12th-century a child's prospects depended more upon the social status and lineage of both parents than of the legitimacy of their marriage.

This collection of work studies the often neglected writers of the second half of the twelfth century in England. At this time three languages competed for recognition and prestige and carved out their own spaces, while an English-speaking populace was ruled by a French-speaking aristocracy and administered by a Latin-speaking and writing clergy.