This is a study of the effects of cross-cultural contact and confrontation on frontier societies, particularly those between England and Scotland, Wales and Ireland, Castille and Granada, and on the Elbe.

List of maps and tables; Abbreviations; List of contributors; Part I: Settlement: Geoffrey Barrow: Frontier and settlement: Which influenced which? England and Scotland, 1100-1300; Robert Bartlett: Colonial aristocracies of the High Middle Ages; Manuel González Jiménez: Frontier and settlement in the Kingdom of Castile (1085-1350); Part II: Institutions: Rees Davies: Frontier arrangements in fragmented societies: Ireland and Wales; Robin Frame: Military service in the Lordship of Ireland 1290-1360: Institutions and society on Anglo-Gaelic frontier; Jos^d'e Enrique López de Ćoca Casta^ner: Institutions on the Castilian-Granadan frontier, 1369-1482; Paul Knoll: Economic and political institutions on the Polish-German frontier in the Middle Ages: Action, reaction, interaction; Part III: Culture and Religion: Katherine Simms: Bards and Barons: The Anglo-Irish aristocracy and the native culture; Alfred Thomas: Czech-German relations as reflected in old Czech literature; Angus MacKay: Religion, culture, and ideology on the late medieval Castilian-Granadan frontier; Anthony Goodman: Religion and warfare in the Anglo-Scottish marches; Friedrich Lotter: The crusading idea and the conquest of the region East of the Elbe; Robert I. Burns: The significance of the frontier in the Middle Ages; Bibliography; Index

`highly original and stimulating, and the bringing together of studies from diverse areas has underscored both the appealing variety and the instructive similarity of frontier experience.' Social History Society Newsletter `remarkably coherent and provides many fascinating insights and nuggets of information which will be of value both to professional historians and to the non-specialist student ... It is so useful to have, within the covers of one volume, the work of the Celtic and Scottish border specialists ... This volume is highly to be commended.' History `The contributions are excellent ... The range of the material, from economic to military and literary history, is impressive.' Journal of Medieval History 'These essays ... draw on a wealth of source material and historical commentary, much of it in recent publications ... The volume provides a substantial and stimulating contribution to the study of a range of issues which probably mattered more in the medieval period than its historians have hitherto allowed.' J.B. Smith, University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, EHR, July 1993