La Normandie et l'Angleterre au Moyen Age

IN 1992 there took place at Reading a conference the proceedings of which, edited by David Bates and Anne Curry, were published as England and Normandy in the Middle Ages (1994) (rev. ante, cxii (1997), 437–8). These consisted of 21 papers, three by French scholars playing away, all published in English. Very broadly, the subjects covered included aspects of the history of Normandy, the effects of the conquest in England, a solid core of papers on aspects of ecclesiastical history, another group on the art and architecture of the period up to 1200, as well as papers on the role of the aristocracy in Anglo-Norman life, and a group on Normandy during the wars of the late middle ages. In all, however, some two thirds of the papers centred on the effects and results of the events of 1066. The collection under review, the proceedings of a conference (the return match, one might call it) held at Cerisy-la-Salle in 2001, is differently formed. Half the papers are by the English ‘visitors’; does this suggest that, for the French, Norman history is ‘regional’, while it is more ‘central’ to the history of medieval England? Comparing the programme of 2001 with that of 1992, we find only one paper touching the history of the Church (its economic history, in this instance) and only a single contribution on the arts (on manuscripts in this case). Has some wind of change been at work here? On the other hand, three papers dedicated specifically to the post-1204 century happily redress an almost total lack of attention paid to this period in the earlier volume. The late middle ages are given about equal weight and attention in the two volumes

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