The Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis has been called the greatest of all medieval chronicles. Written in Normandy between 1114 and 1141, it is a detailed history of the Norman people and their conquests, full of vivid portraits of the lives and characters of men and women, kings and queens, lords and bishops, simple knights and humble villagers. The chronicle offers a unique, authentic picture of feudal society during a period of rapid change in church and state which saw the emergence of the Anglo-Norman realm, the spread of new forms of monasticism, and the launching of the Crusades.