At a time when the relationship of the United Kingdom with the mainland of western Europe is a topic of intense and empassioned debate, the Anglo-Norman period of English history obviously still matters, even if it is so often ignored by those who perceive the distinctive English character to have been forged in the Tudor age by Protestantism and maritime adventure. 1066 remains indeed the most memorable date in English history – the occasion of the last successful invasion of the southern kingdom, the effects of which were extended peaceably, by means of service and marriage, into Scotland. All this was accomplished, too, while Norman adventurers were establishing in the Mediterranean the lordships which were eventually to be united in the kingdom of Sicily, and further east the shorter lived principality of Antioch.

The nature of Anglo-Norman society and government remains as controversial today as it was when in 1966 Sir Richard Southern delivered a famous lecture on ‘England's first entry into Europe’. Certainly, as he stated then, ‘never before or since has the union of England with the community of Europe been so all embracing, and so thoroughly accepted as part of the nature of things’. In terms of cultural advance, Southern was convinced that the long-term effects of the Conquest had been beneficial: ‘the intellectual isolation, which had been so marked a feature of pre-Conquest England, was a thing of the past’ – an observation at which many scholars of Old English art and literature might, it must be confessed, demur. Yet Southern also viewed England between the reigns of the Conqueror and King John as a colony, exploited for the benefit of the motherland: ‘it is very doubtful if the kings had any policy at all in England; they had only expedients for furthering a policy elsewhere’. His own measured judgement was that ‘these were prosperous years for England, but there was not much expression of joy’.

Since the ninth centenary of the Conquest there has been continuous lively debate on every aspect of Anglo-Norman history, from the rituals of kingship to numismatics, from religious sentiment to the nature of tenures.