Christopher Harper-Bill 
Medieval East Anglia 

Medieval East Anglia – one of the most significant and prosperous parts of England in the middle ages – examined through essays on its landscape, history, religion, literature, and culture.


East Anglia was the most prosperous region of medieval England; far from being an isolated backwater, it had strong economic, religious and cultural connections with continental Europe, with Norwich for a time England’s second city. The essays in this volume bring out the importance of the region during the middle ages. Spanning the late eleventh to the fifteenth century, they offer a broad coverage of East Anglia’s history and culture; particular topics examined include its landscape, urban history, buildings, government and society, religion and rich culture.


Contributors: Christopher Harper-Bill, Tom Williamson, Robert E. Liddiard, P. Maddern, Brian Ayers, Elisabeth Rutledge, Penny Dunn, Kate Parker, Carole Rawcliffe, James Campbell, Lucy Marten, Colin Richmond, T. M. Colk, Carole Hill, T.A. Heslop, A.E. Oliver, Theresa Coletti, Penny Granger, Sarah Salih

Mục lục

Introduction – Christopher Harper-Bill

Explaining Regional Landscapes: East Anglia and the Midlands in the Middle Ages – Tom Williamson

The Castle Landscapes of Anglo-Norman East Anglia: A Regional Perspective – Robert E Liddiard

Imagining the Unchanging Land: East Anglians Represent their Landscape, 1350-1500 – P. Maddern

Understanding the Urban Environment: Archaeological Approaches to Medieval Norwich – Brian Ayers

Lawyers and Administrators: The Clerks of Late Thirteenth-Century Norwich – Elizabeth Rutledge

Financial Reform in Late Medieval Norwich: Evidence from an Urban Cartulary – Penny Dunn

A Little Local Difficulty: Lynn and the Lancastrian Usurpation – Kate Parker

Health and Safety at Work in Late Medieval East Anglia – Carole Rawcliffe

Hundreds and Leets: A Survey with Suggestions – J Campbell

The Rebellion of 1075 and its Impact in East Anglia – Lucy Marten

East Anglian Politics and Society in the Fifteenth Century: Reflections, 1956-2003 – Colin Richmond

Twelfth-Century East Anglian Canons: A Monastic Life? – T M Colk

`Leave my Virginity Alone’: The Cult of St Margaret of Antioch in Norwich: In Pursuit of a Pragmatic Piety – Carole Hill

Swaffham Parish Church: Community Building in Fifteenth-Century Norfolk – T A Heslop

Battling Bishops: Late Fourteenth-Century Episcopal Masculinity Admired and Decried – A E Oliver

Social Contexts of the East Anglian Saint Play: The Digby Mary Magdalene and the Late Medieval Hospital? – Theresa Coletti

Devotion to Drama: The N-Town Play and Religious Observance in Fifteenth-Century East Anglia – Penny Granger

Two Travellers’ Tales – Sarah Salih