Let’s start by defining our terms. When do you consider the medieval period in Europe to have begun, and when did it end? It’s not a straightforward question, particularly for someone like me, an early medievalist. My idea of the early Middle Ages probably begins somewhat before many other people’s. There’s a popular conception of the Middle Ages as the period from the Norman Conquest onwards: the period of knights, castles, crusades and all the rest of that business.
