This course examines a crucial period in English history, between the end of the reign of Alfred in the kingdom of Wessex to the early decades of Anglo-Norman kingship. It will use a range of archaeological and historical sources to disrupt traditional historical narratives of English nation-making that often over-emphasise the precocity of the state, the potency of the idea of England and the continuity of royal authority established by the West Saxon dynasty. It will address these themes in wider narrative contexts of the political, ruling and cultural processes between regional elites, between religious institutions and secular dynasties, powerful men and women, conquered and conquering, and English, British, Scandinavian and Norman identities. The aim will be to reassess and improve our understandings of how identities are negotiated through conquest, marriage, writing and material and ritual forms of cultural contact.