Europe is in crisis. The events of the past few years have had a major effect on our perception of the European past and now we have to come to terms with it. Familiar themes from history have emerged to haunt us again - themes such as nationalism, separatism and the balance of power.

In Britain these considerations about the relationship of the present to the past have been lent added force by recent developments in the Community. Questions have again been asked about Britain's role in the world and about the background to her role with Europe. How close were those relations in the past? To what extent was England's historical development peculiar to herself?

To what extent has the Channel been a barrier between the British Isles and Europe - 'a moat defensive to a house' as John of Gaunt put it?

Such are the questions which in their different ways open up the historical perspectives on contemporary preoccupations; and they are all questions to which historians can offer a variety of insights and explanations. In England in Europe 1066-1453, thirteen leading medieval historians consider the issues confronting Europe today in a perspective provided by a study of the Middle Ages - the time when England's links with the Continent were transformed.