I am writing this in early September. Although some universities have altered their academic year so that it begins earlier, I am lucky that Southampton does not have students returning until the end of the month. For me, September is vital for research and writing. It began with a bang or, I should say, with an event which was truly inspiring for me. This was the Fifteenth Century Conference, held in Southampton between 2 and 4 September. As Ralph Griffiths, the highly distinguished author of The Reign of Henry VI (1981) and of many important works on Welsh and English history, reminded me, it was thirty-five years since the first Fifteenth Century Conference had been held. In 1975 the fifteenth century was truly the ‘Cinderella of the middle ages'. Stubbs had deemed it ‘a worn out, helpless age', and there is no doubt that it suffered by being sandwiched between the constitutional developments of preceding centuries and the enduring fascination of the Tudors. All it seemed to offer was a succession of civil wars in which the English either killed their kings or tried hard to do so.