From Alfred the Great to Stephen.

While this collection of his essays was in press, R. H. C. Davis died. It makes a memorial as finely-chiselled and fitting as that which marks his grave.

The volume contains those familiar, classic essays which in many cases have become the starting points for any understanding of their subjects: Alfred, the Danelaw, William of Jumieges, William of Poitiers and the Carmen, and above all Stephen's reign. What is most unusual, for work of such importance, is indicated by the length of the postscripts the author has appended to many of them. Since they were published they have continued to be the principal focus of controversy in the subject, because they set new terms of …