Author Description

All too often British history means English history, and the histories of Wales, Scotland, and Ireland are left to scholars of the "Celtic Fringe." In this clear and authoritative introduction to the medieval history of the British Isles, the four countries are viewed together, revealing the similarities and differences between the regions. Frame traces the expansion of power in the Anglo-Norman aristocracy, church, and monarchy, and their successor, the Plantagenet state, and examines how the Scottish kings alone sustained and extended a rival orbit. Readily accessible to the general reader, the book covers a wide range of topics, including aristocracy, kingship, government, border societies, and the political communities that emerged on both sides of the Irish Sea by the late fourteenth century.