Cookies

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. You can change your cookie settings at any time. Otherwise, we'll assume you're OK to continue.

Department of History

Staff Profile

Professor David Rollason

Professor in the Department of History
Telephone: +44 (0) 191 33 41069

(email at david.rollason@durham.ac.uk)

Following his recent research on the history of early medieval Northumbria and on early medieval books of life, David Rollason is currently engaged on a three-year Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship to research and write The Power of Place in Medieval Kingship 500-1500. Ranging from Andalusia to Scandinavia and from Scotland to Sicily, his work is bringing together the latest archaeological, art historical and historical knowledge about royal palaces, royal cities, royal parks and forests, and royal mausolea and coronation places in order to cast light on the nature and development of kingship across a millennium of European history. He maintains his earlier interests in the histories and chronicles of northern England, and is planning an edition of Symeon of Durham’s History of the Kings of the English and the Danes for publication in 2015.

Research Interests

  • Anglo-Saxon Northumbria
  • Kings, households and palaces in the early middle ages
  • Saints' cults and hagiography

Publications

Books: authored

Edited essays

  • 2011 (co-edited with Leyser, Conrad & Williams, Hannah) England and the Continent in the Tenth Century: Studies in Memory of Wilhelm Levison, Brepols: Turnhout.
  • 2009 (co-edited with Lambert, T. B. ) Peace and Protection in the Middle Ages, Durham Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies/ Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies: Toronto.
  • 1998 Symeon of Durham: Historian of Durham and the North, Paul Watkins, 430 pp.
  • 1998 (co-edited with Michael Prestwich) The Battle of Neville’s Cross 1346, Paul Watkins, 163 pp.
  • 1994 (co-edited with Margaret Harvey and Michael Prestwich) Anglo-Norman Durham 1093-1193, Boydell and Brewer, 506 pp.
  • 1989 (co-edited with Bonner, Gerald & Stancliffe,Clare) St Cuthbert, His Cult and His Community to AD 1200, Boydell and Brewer, 467 pp.
  • 1987 Cuthbert: Saint and Patron, Dean and Chapter of Durham, 61 pp.

Edited sources

  • 2007 (co-edited with Lynda Rollason et.al.) The Durham Liber Vitae. British Library, MS Domitian A.VII, An Edition with Digital Facsimile, and Prosopographical and Linguistic Commentaries, The British Library, 1,540 pp.
  • 2000 Symeon of Durham. Libellus de exordio atque procursu istius hoc est Dunelmensis ecclesie (Church of Durham), Oxford University Press, xcv + 353 pp.
  • 1986 'Goscelin of Canterbury’s account of the translation and miracles of St Mildrith (BHL 5961/4): an edition with notes’ Medieval Studies 48, pp. 139-210.

Essays in edited volumes

  • 2010 ''Levison in Exile'', in Becher, Matthias & Hen, Yitzhak (eds.), Wilhelm Levison (1876-1947) - Ein jüdisches Forscherleben zwischen wissenschaftlicher Anerkennung und politischem Exil, Siegburg: Franz Schmitt, pp. 319-32
  • 2010 ''The Cult of Bede'', in De Gregorio, Scott (ed.), Companion to the Venerable Bede, Cambridge University Press, pp. 193-200
  • 2009 (co-authored with Lambert, T B) 'Protection and the Mead-Hall', in Lambert, T B & Rollason, David (eds.), Peace and Protection in the Middle Ages, Durham Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies/Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, pp. 19-35
  • 2004 'Anglo-Scandinavian York: the evidence of historical sources', in Richard A. Hall, D. W. Rollason, M. Blackburn, D. N. Parsons, G. Fellows-Jensen, A. R. Hall, H. K. Kenward, T. P. O'Connor, D. Tweddle, A. J. Mainmain & N. S. H. Rogers (eds.), Aspects of Anglo-Scandinavian York, Council for British Archaeology, pp. 305-324
  • 1999 'Historical evidence for Anglian York', in D Tweddle, J Moulden & E Logan (eds.), Anglian York: A Survey of the Evidence, York Archaeological Trust, pp. 117-40
  • 1999 'Historical evidence for Anglian York', in Dominic Tweddle, Joan Moulden & et al. (eds.), Anglian York (AD 410-876). A Survey of the Evidence, Council for British Archaeology, pp. 117-40
  • 1999 'Le corps incorruptible de saint Cuthbert et l'église de Durham vers l'an 1100'', in E. Bozóky & A-M. Helvétius (eds.), Les reliques: objets, cultes, symboles, Turnhout, pp. 313-20
  • 1999 'Monasteries and society in early medieval Northumbria', in B. Thompson & Paul Watkins (eds.), in Monasteries and Society, Harlaxton Papers, pp. 59-74
  • 1998 'Symeon's contribution to historical writing in Northern England' and 'The making of the Libellus de exordio: the evidence of erasures and alterations in the two earliest manuscripts', in David Rollason (ed.), Symeon of Durham: Historian of Durham and the North, Shaun Tyas, pp. 1-13, 140-56
  • 1996 'Hagiography and politics in eighth-century Northumbria', in Paul Szarmach (ed.), Holy Men and Holy Women: Old English Prose Saints’ Lives and their Contexts, State University of New York Press, pp. 95-114
  • 1995 'The cult of St Oswald in post-conquest England', in Clare Stancliffe & Eric Cambridge (eds.), Oswald, King and Martyr, Paul Watkins, pp. 164-77
  • 1993 'Durham Cathedral 1093-1193: bishops, monks, and kings', in Peter Isaac & Michael Jackson (eds.), Engineering a Cathedral, Thomas Telford, pp. 1-15
  • 1992 'Symeon of Durham and the community of St Cuthbert in the eleventh century', in Carola Hicks (ed.), England in the Eleventh Century, Boydell and Brewer, pp. 183-98
  • 1992 (co-edited with N. Ramsay, M. Sparks & T. Tatton-Brown) 'The concept of sanctity in Dunstan’s England', in (ed.), in St Dunstan his Life, Times and Cult, Boydell and Brewer, pp. 261-72
  • 1992 'The ecclesiastical context', in Harold Fox (ed.), The Origins of the Midland Village, Economic History Society/University of Leicester, pp. 73-90
  • 1989 'St. Cuthbert and Wessex: the evidence of Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 183', in Gerald Bonner, David Rollason & Clare Stancliffe (eds.), St Cuthbert, His Cult and His Community to AD 1200, Boydell and Brewer, pp. 413-24
  • 1986 'The shrines of saints in later Anglo-Saxon England: distribution and significance', in L.A.S. Butler & R.K. Morris (eds.), The Anglo-Saxon Church: Papers on History, Architecture and Archaeology in Honour of Dr H.M. Taylor, Council for British Archaeology, pp. 32-43
  • 1985 'The miracles of St Benedict: a window on early medieval France', in Henry Mayr-Harting & R.I. Moore (eds.), Studies in Medieval History Presented to R.H.C. Davis, Hambledon Press, pp. 73-90

Journal papers: academic

  • 2009 ''The Origins of Kingship in England and on the Continent (published in Japanese translation by Keizo Asaji)'', Bulletin of Kansai University pp. 29-57
  • 2009 ''The Royal Palace in the Early Middle Ages: Representation and Reality of Power'', Rekishi 113, pp. 26-44
  • 2008 'St Aethelberht of Hereford and the cults of European royal saints', Cantilupe Journal 18, pp. 8-26
  • 1995 'Hexham after the Vikings', Hexham Historian 5, pp. 6-21
  • 1993 'The origins of parishes: a debate’, with John Blair and Eric Cambridge', Early Medieval Europe 2.
  • 1986 'Relic-cults as an instrument of royal policy c.900-c.1050', Anglo-Saxon England 15, pp. 91-103
  • 1983 'The cults of murdered royal saints in Anglo-Saxon England', Anglo-Saxon England 11, pp. 1-22
  • 1979 'The date of the parish boundary of Minster-in-Thanet (Kent)', Archaeologia Cantiana 95, pp. 7-17
  • 1978 'Lists of saints’ resting-places in Anglo-Saxon England', Anglo-Saxon England 7, pp. 61-93
  • 1978 'Lists of saints’ resting-places in Anglo-Saxon England', Anglo-Saxon England 7, pp. 61-93

Other publications: research

  • 2001 'Bede and Germany', pp. 42
  • 1988 'Two Anglo-Saxon Rituals: The Dedication of a Church and the Judicial Ordeal', pp. 20
  • 1981 'The Search for St Wigstan, Prince-Martyr of the Kingdom of Mercia', pp. 19

Teaching Areas

  • Charlemagne's rule
  • Early medieval Europe
  • Kingship rituals and relationships