Abstract: English kings had long sought consorts from outside England for various reasons. Yet, of England's ten queens consort from the mid-1400s to mid-1500s, only three were foreign-born. This article addresses the relationship between this development in English queenship and awareness during this period about England's place in the world. It considers whether changes in the queens' backgrounds were symptomatic of regression in English political ambition. In so doing, it demonstrates that English kings remained invested in the wider world no matter where their queens came from and increasingly sure of their identities and their country's significance in the European world.

Abstract: Social belonging in Old English literature is complex. Poems like 'Beowulf' and the various elegies focus on an individual's position within their own cultural group. However, in more overtly religious poems, community becomes more fluid. Distinctions seemingly based on ethnicity prove less rigid than any racialised 'othering'. Instead, social belonging is determined by faith, differentiated between Christian and non-Christian. In 'Judith', the Bethulians are consciously Christianised and juxtaposed to the heathen Assyrians. In 'Elene', conversion dismantles the barrier between Christians and non-Christians through assimilation. Alterity is thus removed from ethnicity, while communal belonging proves malleable when the 'other' is willing to embrace Christianity.

Abstract: Medieval English texts reflect a society that was more interested in, and connected with, the wider world than is often recognised. Using the case study of an almsgiving mission sent by Alfred the Great to 'India' in 883, this article offers a glimpse into how perceptions of the outside world shifted in English historiography over time. It then surveys the approaches taken in this special issue to the topic of medieval English conceptions of the outside world, from places as close as Denmark to those as distant as Japan. What is revealed is a nuanced intellectual culture that sought to understand its place within a wide and complex world.