The latest volume of Battle Conference proceedings emphasizes the European range and interdisciplinarity of the series. It opens with Anne Duggan’s R. Allen Brown Memorial Lecture for 2010, on the effects of Pope Alexander III’s so-called marriage legislation in England. Norman history is covered by chapters on the detailed account of Robert de Torigni’s deeds as abbot of Mont Saint-Michel which he added to the monastic cartulary, and on religious life in Rouen in the late eleventh century, covering the rivalries but also the common outlook of the cathedral canons and the monks of St Ouen. Close readings of the work of two of the Anglo-Norman historians of the earlier twelfth century provide many new insights into their working methods and views of the world, specifically Willam of Malmesbury’s use of ambiguity and innuendo, and Orderic Vitalis’s treatment of the nexus between power and the display of emotions. There are also two papers on art history, giving sophisticated readings of the architecture shown in the Bayeux Tapestry and the politically charged glazing scheme that Archbishop Anselm installed at Canterbury cathedral.

Contributors: Anne Duggan, Alison Alexander, Richard E. Barton, Thomas N. Bisson, Paul Hayward, T.A. Heslop, Elizabeth Carson Pastan

C.P. LEWIS is a Research Fellow in the History Department at King’s College, London, and a Senior Fellow of the Institute of Historical Research in the University of London.