There has been a tendency in recent years to neglect the study of battles, as a somewhat outmoded approach to history. An example would be the excellent volume on the Hundred Years War, edited by Fowler, in which virtually every possible aspect of the war is considered, with the exception of the battles. It is true that such an approach has in the past been used at the expense of studies of campaigns, or political and social sides of warfare. Views on battle have certainly been modified by a study within the broader context, but this should encourage cross-fertilisation between the various fields, and not neglect of any one. A study of battles can indeed stimulate ideas in other areas of history. For example, if dismounted knights are significant in twelfth-century battles, can one find a social explanation of that significance? Perhaps Anglo-Norman historians are less narrow than some of their colleagues, and the example given is of course one provided by Dr Chibnall.

The intention of this paper is to ask some questions of the battles in the century following the Norman Conquest, without necessarily anticipating clear answers. A question raised by those with even a passing interest in the period is, why there were so few battles. Professor Hollister, in his important work on ‘The Military Organization of Norman England', discusses five battles which he suggests were 'the only ones of any significance in the Anglo-Norman age'. Some would see this as a sign that battles were not especially important in the warfare of this period: sieges were common, and therefore more significant. But significance surely does not rest only in quantity. In any case, one of the most obvious features of Norman warfare is the close, almost inseparable, relationship between sieges and battles. Two responses to the question come to mind. Professor Hollister was concerned with those battles which had been described in sufficient detail to allow some discussion of tactics. There were certainly more battles, many of which were at least as large in scale as Bourgthe'roulde, but are given little space by the chroniclers. There were at least fifteen lesser battles in the period. As econd consideration is the frequency with which battles were avoided. Sometimes this was achieved by a form of truce or treaty, sometimes simply by backing down from a challenge.