Early Medieval Britain, C. 500–1000

by Rory Naismith Book 1 in the Cambridge History of Britain series.

First published 2021

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2.5(5)

Rory Naismith traces Britain from the end of Roman government to the eve of the eleventh century, when new kingdoms, institutions and identities were taking shape across the islands. England emerged through the interaction of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and Viking conquest, while political communities in Scotland and Wales developed along different lines. The book treats Britain as a connected but divided world rather than as the story of England alone.

Alongside rulers and warfare, Naismith examines belief, social organisation, economic life, settlement and the evidence left by archaeology, coins, manuscripts and other contemporary sources. Particular attention is given to the changing meaning of Britain and to the islands’ links with Ireland, Scandinavia and continental Europe, showing how the political map of the later Middle Ages grew out of the transformations of the early medieval centuries.