The complexity of the interplay and relationships over various borders in medieval Europe is here fully teased out.The processes by which ideas, objects, texts and political thought and experience moved across boundaries in the Middle Ages form the focus of this book, which also seeks to reassess the nature of the boundaries themselves; it thus appropriately reflects a major theme of Dr Malcolm Vale's work, which the essays collected here honour. They suggest ways of breaking down established historiographical paradigms of Europe as a set of distinct polities, achieving a more nuanced picture in which people and objects were constantly moving, and challenging previous conceptions of units and borders. The first section examines the construction of boundaries and units in the later Middle Ages, via topics ranging from linguistic units to social stratifications, and geographically from the Netherlands and Scotland to Gascony and the Iberian peninsula; it reveals how much the relationship between exchange and boundaries was reciprocal. The second section considers the mechanisms by which it took place, from West Africa to Italy and Flanders, and discusses the actual exchange of people, texts, and unusual artefacts. Overall, the essays bear witness to the constant interplay and interconnections throughout medieval Europe and beyond. Contributors: Paul Booth, Maria João Violante Branco, Rita Costa-Gomes, Mario Damen, Jan Dumolyn, Jean Dunbabin, Jean-PhilippeGenet, Michael Jones, Maurice Keen, Frédérique Lachaud, Patrick Lantschner, Guilhem Pépin, R.L.J. Shaw, Hannah Skoda, Erik Spindler, John Watts.

The Work of Malcolm Vale - Michael JonesPrincipal Bibliography of Malcolm ValeIntroduction - Patrick Lantschner and Hannah SkodaEconomic Development, Social Space and Political Power in Bruges, c. 1127-1302 - Jan DumolynFlemings in the Peasants' Revolt, 1381 - Erik SpindlerDoes a Common Language Mean a Shared Allegiance? Language, Identity, Geography and their Links with Polities: The Cases of Gascony and Brittany - Guilhem PepinRevisiting the Political Uses of Vernacular Language in Portugal during the Thirteenth Century: On Models, Motives and Modes - Maria Joao Violante BrancoScotland in the Later Middle Ages: A Province or a Foreign Kingdom for the English? - Jean-Philippe GenetThe Angevin Legacy, Dynastic Rivalry, and the Aftermath of the Hundred Years War, 1453-1491 - Maurice KeenIn and Out of Africa: Iberian Courts and the Afro-Portuguese Olifant of the late 1400s - Rita Costa-GomesThe Knowledge and Use of the 'Teachings of Saint Louis' in Fourteenth-Century England - Frédérique LachaudPhilip of Chieti in Flanders, 1303-1305 - Jean DunbabinThe Last Week of the Life of Edward, the Black Prince - Paul H W BoothTournament Culture in the Low Countries and England - Mario DamenConclusions - John L Watts