This illuminating book provides an account of a century and a half of English medieval history, beginning with the compilation of the Domesday Book and culminating in the issue of the Magna Carta and the subsequent civil war. A. L. Poole assesses the social and economic background to the period, the position of the monarchy, progress in education, church reform, and also studies the twelfth-century renaissance in literature and art, providing a full and detailed study of everyday life in English towns and country in medieval England. 'a model of its kind ... has the unusual merit of being at once comprehensive and uniformly satisfying' TES 'an important and useful book, written and well written by a scholar of great learning and integrity' Guardian 'a volume that all medievalists will admire and use will remain, alike for historians and for the general reader, an indispensable and adequate possession.' Tablet 'the most brilliant and the most exciting of the medieval centuries to be judged by the highest standards' TLS