Albeit here numbered as Thirteenth Century England XIX, to avoid confusion over its appearance ahead of its immediate predecessor in this series, this, in reality the twentieth such conference, took place in Heidelberg, in mid-September 2023, as ‘England and Germany: Economic, Social and Personal Connections and Comparisons’. This was the first time in its distinguished history that the Thirteenth Century Conference had travelled to Germany. Given the extent of Anglo-German entanglements across the reigns of the first five Plantagenet kings, the delay here was perhaps somewhat surprising. It is nevertheless easily explained. England remains the focus of the conference, for many years indeed known specifically as ‘Thirteenth Century England’. As most participants are based in the British Isles, English or Welsh universities have been its customary hosts. Not until 2009 did the conference travel overseas. Inevitably this was to Paris, in commemoration of the Treaty of 1259 in its 750th anniversary year. Not for a further fifteen years did an opportunity arise to transpose the event to Germany. This occurred almost by accident, as a result of a phone call between Jörg Peltzer and Andrew Spencer (at that time joint-host during the conference's stint in Cambridge). As a result, the fifth of the bi-annual conferences, originally scheduled for Cambridge in 2023, instead migrated from the Cam to the banks of the Neckar, and from Fenland flatness to the magnificently elevated Odenwald.

Heidelberg has a distinguished tradition of research into the history of thirteenth-century England and France.