Overview

Although the Norman Conquest of 1066 swept away most of the secular and ecclesiastical leaders of pre-Conquest England, it held some positive aspects for English society, such as its effects on Anglo-Saxon monastic foundations, which this study explores. The first part deals in depth with five individual case studies (Abingdon, Gloucester, Bury St Edmunds, St Albans and St Augustine's, Canterbury) as well as Fenland and other houses, showing how despite mixed fortunes the major houses survived to become the richest in England. The second part places the experiences of the houses in the context of structural changes in religious patronage as well as within the social and political nexus of the Anglo-Norman realm. Dr Cownie analyses the pattern of gifts to religious houses on both sides of the Channel, looking at the reasons why they were made. EMMA COWNIEgained her Ph.D. from the University of Wales at Cardiff; she currently holds a research fellowship at King's College, London.

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A nuanced but complex picture of the relationship between the victorious incomers and the religious world on which they at first violenntly intruded, but subsequently often took to their hearts. ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW An important addition to the recent corpus of scholarship on Anglo-Norman English society... sheds valuable new light on the problem of multiple self-identities of the new Norman elites in England. SPECULUM Cownie is to be congratulated on producing a weighty book which will surely attract a wide readership. ARCHIVES

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