The Transactions of the Royal Historical Society publish an annual collection of major articles representing some of the best historical research by some of the world's most distinguished historians. This volume includes the following articles: 'Presidential Address: French Crossings I: Tales of Two Cities' by Colin Jones, 'Living Like the Laity? The Negotiation of Religious Status in the Cities of Late Medieval Italy' by Frances Andrews, 'Oliver Cromwell and the Protectorate' by Blair Worden, 'Refashioning Puritan New England: The Church of England in British North America, c.1680c.1770' by Jeremy Gregory, 'Irish Social Thought and the Relief of Poverty, 18471880' by Peter Gray, ''Facts Notorious to the Whole Country': The Political Battle over Irish Poor Law Reform in the 1860s' by Virginia Crossman and 'The Age of Prothero: British Historiography in the Long Fin de Siecle, 18701920' (The Prothero Lecture) by Michael Bentley.