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This volume is the result of a conference at University College London in 2007 which addressed the scale and form of civil defences in early medieval Europe, c. 800-1000. Previous work has largely focussed on individual sites or specific categories of evidence. These papers offer new interdisciplinary perspectives driven by a landscape approach. Several contributions focus on civil defence in England around the time of King Alfred the Great, and together provide a new agenda for the study of Anglo-Saxon military landscapes. European case-studies facilitate a comparative approach to local and regional defensive structures and interpretive paradigms. Topics and themes covered include civil defence landscapes, the organization and form of defensive structures, and the relationships and dynamics between social complexity, militarization, and external threats. With papers ranging from England to Spain and Germany to Scandinavia the volume is of relevance to a range of disciplines including archaeology, history, onomastics, geography, and anthropology

Secret marriages and cases that reached the Church courts show that there was a social tension in the society, as marriage was also a social fact affected by family, financial and feudal aspects. Therefore, in reality, the choice by people, especially by women, was not free. In real life, marriages were still formed for economic, social, even military reasons. Marriage consent rules developed into an entire section of the contract law, they were not only the foundation of the contemporary matrimonial law, but also produced certain fundamental elements of the contract law, namely the notion of free will and related notions of an error, coercion and deceit. The Christian matrimonial law that was formed in the Middle Ages existed in the Western Europe until the Reformation in the 16th century, in England even longer.

Secret marriages and cases that reached the Church courts show that there was a social tension in the society, as marriage was also a social fact affected by family, financial and feudal aspects. Therefore, in reality, the choice by people, especially by women, was not free. In real life, marriages were still formed for economic, social, even military reasons. Marriage consent rules developed into an entire section of the contract law, they were not only the foundation of the contemporary matrimonial law, but also produced certain fundamental elements of the contract law, namely the notion of free will and related notions of an error, coercion and deceit. The Christian matrimonial law that was formed in the Middle Ages existed in the Western Europe until the Reformation in the 16th century, in England even longer.

Secret marriages and cases that reached the Church courts show that there was a social tension in the society, as marriage was also a social fact affected by family, financial and feudal aspects. Therefore, in reality, the choice by people, especially by women, was not free. In real life, marriages were still formed for economic, social, even military reasons. Marriage consent rules developed into an entire section of the contract law, they were not only the foundation of the contemporary matrimonial law, but also produced certain fundamental elements of the contract law, namely the notion of free will and related notions of an error, coercion and deceit. The Christian matrimonial law that was formed in the Middle Ages existed in the Western Europe until the Reformation in the 16th century, in England even longer.

Secret marriages and cases that reached the Church courts show that there was a social tension in the society, as marriage was also a social fact affected by family, financial and feudal aspects. Therefore, in reality, the choice by people, especially by women, was not free. In real life, marriages were still formed for economic, social, even military reasons. Marriage consent rules developed into an entire section of the contract law, they were not only the foundation of the contemporary matrimonial law, but also produced certain fundamental elements of the contract law, namely the notion of free will and related notions of an error, coercion and deceit. The Christian matrimonial law that was formed in the Middle Ages existed in the Western Europe until the Reformation in the 16th century, in England even longer.

With the enlargement of the European Union, Europe is experiencing profound changes. All European nation states are going to face growing cultural and linguistic diversity. Therefore, considerable efforts to understand, respect, and sustain the very contrasts that make Europe so rich and complex will be required from all EU citizens. A specific feature of European cultural life is the ability to engage effectively with diversity. This engagement is linked to its basis in tradition and new developments.

With the enlargement of the European Union, Europe is experiencing profound changes. All European nation states are going to face growing cultural and linguistic diversity. Therefore, considerable efforts to understand, respect, and sustain the very contrasts that make Europe so rich and complex will be required from all EU citizens. A specific feature of European cultural life is the ability to engage effectively with diversity. This engagement is linked to its basis in tradition and new developments.

With the enlargement of the European Union, Europe is experiencing profound changes. All European nation states are going to face growing cultural and linguistic diversity. Therefore, considerable efforts to understand, respect, and sustain the very contrasts that make Europe so rich and complex will be required from all EU citizens. A specific feature of European cultural life is the ability to engage effectively with diversity. This engagement is linked to its basis in tradition and new developments.

In medieval legal transactions the use of the written word was only one of many ways of conducting business. Important roles were played by the spoken word and by the 'action' of ritual. The relationship between 'rituals' and literacy has been the focus of much recent research. Medieval societies which made extensive use of written instruments in legal transactions have been shown to employ rituals as well. This has ledto investigation of the respective functions of written instruments and legal rituals. What is the nature of legal rituals? If they included oral verbalization, how did the spoken words relate to those of the written instruments that played a role in the same legal transactions? Usually, we only have the written documents to answer these questions, and they are often silent about the rituals and oral elements of the transactions they document

Adapted from the source document.