With Immigrant England, 1300–1550, W. Mark Ormrod, Bart Lambert, and Jonathan Mackman provide readers with a truly fascinating, thoughtful, comprehensive, yet accessible, account of immigration into England in the later Middle Ages. Their work poses, and answers, important questions about our understanding of immigration. For example, to what extend did inward-looking English nationalism (such as it was) at this time promote racial and ethnic hostility? Furthermore, the authors have sought to “humanise the immigrant experience in England” (259); in this, they have succeeded.

The introduction effectively contextualizes the study and the documentary resources used in it and makes welcome reference to the use of terms such as foreigner and immigrant in this study. This is examined in more detail in chapter 2, which discusses the English government's attempts to turn aliens into a legal entity, those who sought denization, and most importantly what might be described as “political campaigns” against various groups—clergy, merchants, and artisans—in the fifteenth century. However, they argue that the restrictions placed upon alien workers were economically motivated by native-born businesspeople suffering the effects of recession at that time. Protectionist policies are interpreted here as the central government's bending to political pressure from London livery companies. The “alien problem” is considered here as political gesturing rather than something that had a profound impact upon those who immigrated to England in the fifteenth century.

Chapter 3 analyzes the alien subsidies in order to measure the number of aliens living within the kingdom in the fifteenth century. They estimate that some 30,000 aliens were living in England in 1440, representing roughly 1 percent of the English population at that time (57). The geographical distribution of these immigrants is particularly interesting. While the greatest concentration of aliens was found in towns and cities, particularly London, immigrants were also found across the countryside, particularly in the southeast and southwest of the kingdom. This meant that citizens of the greater towns must have interacted with foreigners living in their midst every day. Chapter 4 discusses immigration of those within the British Isles. With regard to Scottish immigration for example, the authors argue both that numbers increased at this time and that those Scots who settled in southern England were often those of greater means, attracted by higher levels of commercialization and urbanization in the south of the kingdom. Chapter 5 then examines immigration from outside the British Isles in equally accessible detail. For example, many French migrants came from northern and northwestern France; in 1440, sixty-eight immigrants from the Low Countries and Germany (described in the documentation as “Dutch”) settled in Cambridgeshire, representing 52 percent of the identifiable alien population, while, in contrast, the majority of Italian migrants tended to reside in the capital.

The following two chapters explore the role of immigrants in the late medieval English economy. Chapter 6 discusses the various trades, such as victualling and cloth making, and mercantile trades undertaken by immigrants revealed in the subsidy documentation. Interestingly this appears to have been led by demand, with foreign workers often producing high-value goods with skills imported from the European mainland. During periods of economic slump, London's native craft guilds petitioned parliament, vociferously complaining about unfair competition from these alien artisans. However, the authors argue here that English customers preferred the goods produced by alien craftspersons over those supplied by natives. So immigrants not only filled post–Black Death labor shortages but also made a significant contribution to the economy as a whole. Chapter 7 begins by referencing the hosting regulations of 1439–40 introduced because it was believed that “aliens living in the realm possessed far greater wealth than native-born people” (157), before discussing the wealth, status, and gender of these immigrants. It reveals that immigrants were regularly employed in a multitude of low-status jobs, including as agricultural laborers and servants. It includes an interesting discussion of both the opportunities and the plight of female immigrants in the fifteenth century.

Chapter 8 examines the evidence for immigration from beyond Europe, from the Middle East, Northern Africa, and other places in the then known wider world. For example, there is a very interesting section on language used to describe those of non-European ethnicity, such as “of Inde” (an ill-defined term used to describe those from lands beyond the Holy Land) and another that discusses the contemporary understanding that all Saracens were “black.” While the evidence, even from the Tudor period, is sparse, this presents very interesting indications of non-Europeans’ settlement in England. Chapter 9 examines what might be described as immigrant assimilation into medieval English society. It discusses contemporary national stereotypes and the importance to immigrants of acquiring the English language, as well as the ways in which the English expressed their own views of nationhood through contact with immigrants. The authors suggest that these values were important to those immigrants wishing to assimilate into English society. Chapter 10 takes this further and examines integration and (occasional) conflict. The evidence employed here demonstrates that, far from being a closed medieval society, immigrants from across Europe experienced a relatively peaceful coexistence with their native-born neighbors and were commonly integrated into English society. Importantly, even where there were large numbers of immigrants, as in London, Bristol, or York, these aliens tended not live in their own quarter but rather were distributed fairly evenly among the native population. Furthermore, it argues that most of the violent confrontations between natives and immigrants were economically motivated and not primarily aroused by widespread anti-alien feeling. Rather, they were clashes that took advantage of local antagonisms. For example, it was the London guildsmen who employed the mobs who intimidated foreign merchants and crafts people during the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381.

All this is very clearly explained throughout the book. This book makes a significant contribution to historical understandings of immigration into England. It is important for all those interested in the historical dimensions of immigration policy, attitudes to ethnicity and race, and concepts of Englishness and Britishness. It is furnished with excellent tables, maps, footnotes, and an extensive bibliography. Importantly for all researchers and students, the data providing the foundation of this study is freely available via the accompanying website. This important book will become the standard work on English medieval migration for a considerable time to come.