Staff profile

Funded by a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship (2010-13), David Rollason has completed a project on royal and imperial sites in Europe from the Roman to the early modern periods, and published it as The Power of Place: Rulers and their Palaces, Landscapes, Cities, and Holy Places (Princeton University Press, 2016). Having convened a conference on bishops’ palaces at Auckland Castle in 2015, he has now edited the proceedings as Princes of the Church: Bishops and their Palaces (Routledge, forthcoming 2017). He is now embarking on a preliminary exploration, with Professor Morgan Pitelka (Chapel Hill University), of palace-cities in Japan, Europe, and the Middle East. Before that gets under way, David Rollason is completing the second edition of his Early Medieval Europe (Routledge, forthcoming 2017), and the edition and translation, with Professor Michael Lapidge (University of Cambridge), of Symeon of Durham, Historia de regibus Anglorum et Dacorum (Oxford Medieval Texts). He is involved with three other research projects: the Royal Scone RSE Network, Royal Residence in Early Medieval Britain, and People and Place:The Making of the Kingdom of Northumbria AD300-800.

• Royal and Imperial Sites in Europe
• Palace-Cities in Japan, Europe, and the Middle East
• Symeon of Durham's historical writing
• Anglo-Saxon Northumbria

• Royal Residences in Early Medieval Britain
• Royal Scone RSE Network

Authored book

• Rollason, David (2016). The Power of Place: Rulers and their Palaces, Landscapes, Cities, and Holy Places. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
• Rollason, David (2012). Early Medieval Europe 300-1050: The Birth of Western Society?. Harlow: Pearson.
• Rollason, D. W. (2003). Northumbria 500-1100: Creation and Destruction of a Kingdom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Rollason DW, D Gore & G Fellows-Jensen (1998). Sources for York History to AD1100. York Archaeological Trust.
• (1989). Saints and Relics in Anglo-Saxon England. Basil Blackwell.
• (1982). Mildrith Legend: A Study in Early Medieval Hagiography in England. Leicester University Press.

Chapter in book

• Rollason, David (2010). 'Levison in Exile'. In Wilhelm Levison (1876-1947) - Ein jüdisches Forscherleben zwischen wissenschaftlicher Anerkennung und politischem Exil. Becher, Matthias & Hen, Yitzhak Siegburg: Franz Schmitt. 319-32.
• Rollason, David (2010). 'The Cult of Bede'. In Companion to the Venerable Bede. De Gregorio, Scott Cambridge University Press. 193-200.
• Rollason, David & Lambert, T B (2009). Protection and the Mead-Hall. In Peace and Protection in the Middle Ages. Lambert, T B & Rollason, David Toronto: Durham Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies/Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies. 19-35.
• Rollason, D. W. (2004). Anglo-Scandinavian York: the evidence of historical sources. In Aspects of Anglo-Scandinavian York. 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 York: Council for British Archaeology. 305-324.
• Rollason, D. W. (1999). Monasteries and society in early medieval Northumbria. In Monasteries and Society in Medieval Britain: Proceedings of the 1994 Harlaxton Symposium. Thompson, Benjamin Stamford, Lincolnshire: Paul Watkins Publishing. 59-74.
• Rollason, David (1999). Le corps incorruptible de saint Cuthbert et l'église de Durham vers l'an 1100'. In Les reliques: objets, cultes, symboles. Bozóky, E. & Helvétius, A-M. Turnhout: Brepols Publishers. 313-20.
• Rollason DW (1999). Historical evidence for Anglian York. In Anglian York: A Survey of the Evidence. D Tweddle, J Moulden & E Logan York Archaeological Trust. 117-40.
• Rollason DW (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 Symeon of Durham: Historian of Durham and the North. David Rollason Shaun Tyas. 1-13, 140-56.
• Rollason, David (1996). Hagiography and politics in early Northumbria. In Holy Men and Holy Women: Old English Prose Saints’ Lives and their Contexts. Szarmach, Paul State University of New York Press. 95-114.
• Rollason, David (1995). The cult of St Oswald in post-conquest England. In Oswald, King and Martyr. Stancliffe, Clare & Cambridge, Eric Paul Watkins. 164-77.
• Rollason, David (1993). Durham Cathedral 1093-1193: bishops, monks, and kings. In Engineering a Cathedral. Isaac, Peter & Jackson, Michael London: Thomas Telford. 1-15.
• Rollason, D (1992). Symeon of Durham and the community of St Cuthbert in the eleventh century. In England in the Eleventh Century. Carola Hicks Boydell and Brewer. 183-98.
• Rollason, D. (1992). The ecclesiastical context. In The Origins of the Midland Village. Harold Fox Economic History Society/University of Leicester. 73-90.
• N. Ramsay, M. Sparks & T. Tatton-Brown (1992). The concept of sanctity in Dunstan’s England. In in St Dunstan his Life, Times and Cult. Boydell and Brewer. 261-72.
• Bonner, Gerald Rollason, David & Stancliffe, Clare (1989). St. Cuthbert and Wessex: the evidence of Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 183. In St Cuthbert, His Cult and His Community to AD 1200. Boydell and Brewer. 413-24.
• Rollason, D (1986). The shrines of saints in later Anglo-Saxon England: distribution and significance. In The Anglo-Saxon Church: Papers on History, Architecture and Archaeology in Honour of Dr H.M. Taylor. L.A.S. Butler & R.K. Morris Council for British Archaeology. 32-43.
• Rollason, D (1985). The miracles of St Benedict: a window on early medieval France. In Studies in Medieval History Presented to R.H.C. Davis. Henry Mayr-Harting & R.I. Moore Hambledon Press. 73-90.

Edited book

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

Edited Sources, Research Data Sets and Databases

• Rollason DW (2000). Symeon of Durham. Libellus de exordio atque procursu istius hoc est Dunelmensis ecclesie (Church of Durham). Oxford Medieval Texts. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Journal Article

• Rollason, David (2009). 'The Royal Palace in the Early Middle Ages: Representation and Reality of Power'. Rekishi 113(September): 26-44.
• Rollason, David (2009). 'The Origins of Kingship in England and on the Continent (published in Japanese translation by Keizo Asaji)'. Bulletin of Kansai University 29-57.
• David Rollason (2008). St Aethelberht of Hereford and the cults of European royal saints. Cantilupe Journal 18: 8-26.
• (1995). Hexham after the Vikings. Hexham Historian 5: 6-21.
• (1993). The origins of parishes: a debate’, with John Blair and Eric Cambridge. Early Medieval Europe 2.
• Rollason, D. W. (1986). Goscelin of Canterbury's Account of the Translation and Miracles of St. Mildrith (BHL 5961/4): An Edition with Notes. Mediaeval Studies 48: 139-210.
• (1986). Relic-cults as an instrument of royal policy c.900-c.1050. Anglo-Saxon England 15: 91-103.
• (1983). The cults of murdered royal saints in Anglo-Saxon England. Anglo-Saxon England 11: 1-22.
• (1979). The date of the parish boundary of Minster-in-Thanet (Kent). Archaeologia Cantiana 95: 7-17.
• (1978). Lists of saints’ resting-places in Anglo-Saxon England. Anglo-Saxon England 7: 61-93.

Other (Print)

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