A reinterpretation of the political crises of the thirteenth-century England, wherein ideas are subordinated to interests; less an era of revolution, reform, and rebellion and more one of crisis, born of political instability but in broader institutional, administrative, economic, and legal contexts.

A doctoral student of Rodney Hilton at Birmingham, Peter Coss joined the board of Past and Present in 1984 and was a lecturer and subsequently professor at the University of Northumbria. He held the established chair of medieval history at Cardiff University from 1995-2013 where he became head of the School of History, Archaeology and Religion. He held a Leverhulme Fellowship at the University of Pisa and Visiting Fellowships at Magdalen and Exeter Colleges, Oxford. He was awarded a D. Litt. by Cardiff University for his contribution to knowledge and has published six monographs, three editions of historical documents, a dozen edited collections, and more than 50 essays.