Richard Purkiss

My research interests centre on the social, legal, and landscape history of Anglo-Saxon England. I am a Research Associate on the Leverhulme-funded Making the March project, led by Dr Andy Seaman (Cardiff) and Dr Charles Insley (Manchester), which undertakes the first interdisciplinary, multi-scalar analysis of the development of the Anglo-Welsh frontier before the Norman Conquest. It brings together archaeologists and historians to provide an integrated view of the frontier and create a platform for new research on medieval frontiers more broadly.

Separately, I am writing up my first monograph, East Anglia and the English Kingdom, c. 880–1066. Based on my doctoral thesis, the book uses East Anglia as a window on the process often characterised as English ‘unification’ or ‘state-formation’, exploring the mechanisms by which the West Saxon dynasty asserted and maintained its power across an expanding kingdom.