The forty-second Battle Conference of Anglo-Norman Studies took place at Battle Abbey School in East Sussex between 19 and 22 July 2019. Our hosts, Aaron Pawson, Debbie White, James Dennett, and the other members of the team were courteous and efficient, supporting me in arranging the conference and all of us during our stay. On behalf of all the members of the conference, I should like to extend my thanks to the staff; we will be returning to the School for our 2021 conference. The staff of the School of History at the University of East Anglia have also been extraordinarily kind and generous with their support. I should particularly like to mention Rachel Cole, our School Manager, whose can-do attitude and determination to help us do our jobs meant that she, when no other person could, managed to get the University to support the payment processing for the conference. I should also like to thank my postgraduate students, Sally Spong, Rich Daines (now Dr Daines), and Dan Talbot for acting as the welcoming committee for all newcomers. They did a magnificent job of making people feel at home, and Dan did an excellent job as the conference’s major domus.

We are now in the fortunate position that five of the lectures have funding attached to them. The Allen Brown Memorial Trust funds the Memorial Lecture and the Marjorie Chibnall essay (not awarded in 2019); the estate of Christine Mahaney has set aside money to support a memorial lecture (this year’s lecture will be published in next year’s volume), as, too, has the estate of Des Seal, while a further lecture is supported by an anonymous benefactor. The Muriel Brown bursaries and generous donations from supporters allow us to fund postgraduate student places at the conference. The committee would like to express its thanks for all these gifts which help to secure the future of the conference set up by Allen Brown more than forty years ago. The generosity of these benefactors, harnessed to Allen’s vision, is helping to sustain the study of the Anglo-Norman past in a way which would not be otherwise possible.