Provides an integrated history of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales in a period of particular turbulence and upheaval. Each chapter compares and contrasts developments in the four countries and focuses on particular themes: society and population, economic life, religion, intellectual life and cultural expression, kingdoms and dominions at peace and at war, and kingship and government. Specially commissioned from six leading historians, these chapters provide lively and authoritative coverage of the main developments of the period. Including maps, a chronology and an introduction and conclusion by Ralph Griffiths to draw together key points, this book presents an innovative account of British and Irish history in the later Middle Ages.