Lordship and the Urban Community: Durham and its Overlords, 1250-1540

The city of Durham, although geographically far removed from the centre of political power in England in the later medieval period, was of great strategic and ecclesiastical importance during its early history. It was the seat of the prince bishops, a military headquarters for the defence of the northern borders of England, a centre for pilgrimages to the shrine of St Cuthbert and the principal market town for the region. After tracing Durham's late tenth-century origins, the book examines ...