England and Iberia in the Middle Ages

This is the general topic of a new highly interesting collection of essays stemming from an interdisciplinary panel of medievalists trying to present the many diverse ways in which history, literature and art was influenced through relations between these two outposts of Medieval Europe.

We are so used to ponder the importance of the Mediterranean Sea as a connective cultural tissue. During the last 20 years we have come to speak about the Baltic Sea in the same fashion. We still need to get a firmer grip on the interconnectedness of the Atlantic Zone reaching from Gibraltar to The British Isles. Of course there is an important literature outlining the relations between the two empires in the 16th century. We are however not used to think seriously about the same bonds in the Middle Ages.

A number of essays in this collection open up for this very exciting "new" field of historical exploration. Pilgrimages, marriages, career-shifts, trade and literature are the themes, which are expertly touched upon. Of course some of the articles seem too foreshortened and there are so many other connections which might have been explored, e.g. the material culture. But as a start of a very promising venture, the collection should be highly recommended.

María Bullón-Fernández (Ed): England and Iberia in the Middle Ages, 12th -15th Century.

Palgrave MacMillan 2007