England and Spain During the Reign of King Æthelred the Unready
England and Spain during the reign of King Æthelred the Unready Simon Keynes Historians of Anglo-Saxon England might once have been predisposed, of their nature, towards an ‘insular’ outlook on the past.1 Of course it has long since become axiomatic that any aspect of the subject is best approached not only in its British context but also in wider dimensions. It is in part a matter of direct contact: of Englishmen crossing the channel on journeys to foreign parts, under a variety of circumstances, and for whatever reason; or of missionaries, envoys, learned men and merchants travelling to England, again for one reason or another. It is also a matter of indirect influence: the impact on the English of whatever had been seen, absorbed, or brought in from overseas. It is a matter, furthermore, of analogies, contrasts, and similarities; of observing what questions or methods are driving historical enquiry in one context, and of considering whether anything similar might apply in England. The importance of the ‘continental’ dimension is self-evident already in the fifth century, and it remains so thereafter, indeed until the English eventually succumbed to it to 1066. England and Spain about the year 1000 An historian of Anglo-Saxon England could venture overseas to Italy, France, Germany, the Low Countries, Scandinavia, Hungary, Byzantium, Jerusalem, even India — and find something to say (in certain contexts a great deal) about contacts, connections, contrasts, and analogies. Yet what about England and Spain? Although the works of Isidore, bishop of Seville (d. 636), of Julian, archbishop of Toledo (d.
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