Rory Naismith is an historian specializing in the European Middle Ages. He has taught since 2015 at King’s College London. His principal research interest is the role of money (coined and otherwise) in early medieval Britain, particularly Anglo-Saxon England, and he has published extensively on the subject. Although money has obvious economic implications, it is also important as a source of early medieval cultural, institutional and political history.
His first book, The Coinage of Southern England 796–865 was called ‘a landmark achievement’, and his book Money and Power in Anglo-Saxon England: the Southern English Kingdoms, 757–865 won the Best First Monograph prize of the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists in 2013. He was lead editor (with Martin Allen and Elina Screen) of Early Medieval Monetary History. Studies in Honour of Mark Blackburn, which has been described in reviews as a ‘splendid memorial volume … a dynamic, rewarding and coherent volume’.
Rory has been interviewed for television by the BBC and ITV and has been consulted by or published in The Daily Mail, The Guardian and The Telegraph.
He is at work on Foundations of Gold and Silver: Money in Early Medieval Europe from the Fifth to the Twelfth Century, to be published by Princeton University Press. It looks at the vital importance of money during a period of dramatic social, economic, and institutional change.