The names of the judges for each year appear in parentheses after the winners. Until 1991, the Bethell Prize Essay was published in Albion; since then, it has appeared in the Haskins Society Journal.

2023  (Judge: Louis Wilkinson, University of Lincoln, UK)

2022  Arnaud Montreuil, The Exemplary Knighting of Geoffrey Plantagenet: A Historiographical and Documentary Reappraisal (Judge: Frances Andrews, University St Andrews)

2021 Emily Rose Price-Goodfellow, "Heretics, Miracles, and Cistercian Preachers:The Influence of Henry of Marcy on Herbert of Clairvaux’s Liber visionum et miraculorum Clarevallensium (Judge: Hugh Thomas, University of Miami)

2020  Gabriela A. Faundez Rojas, "Denis Piramus’s La Vie Seint Edmund: Translating Cultural Identities In The Anglo-Norman World (Judge: Amy Livingstone, University of Lincoln, UK)

2019  Jesse Harrington, "Raiders and the last Ark: Walter Espec, Deuteronomic homily, and the Ark of the Covenant in Aelred of Rievaulx’s Relatio de Standardo" (Judge: Fiona Griffiths, Stanford University)

2018 Stuart D. P. Pracy, "Social Mobility and Manumissions in Early Medieval England" (Judge: William Chester Jordan, Princeton University)

2017  Robin S. Reich, "Nearly Gold and Nearly Perfect?: Meaning and Materiality of Copper-Alloy in Norman Sicily" (Judge: Contance Bouchard, University of Akron)

2016  Simon Parsons, "Crusading Participation in Normandy and its Borderlands: The Evidence of the Old French Translation of the First Crusade" (Judge: Stephen Church, University of East Anglia)

2015  Bridget Riley, "Lost and Found: Eadmer’s 'De reliquiis Sancti Audoeni' as a Cross-Channel Solution to the Canterbury-York Dispute." (Ruth Mazo Karras, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities)

2014  Katherine L. Hodges-Kluck, "Helena, Constantine and the Angevin Desire for Jerusalem"(Judge: Bruce O'Brien, University of Mary Washington)

2013 Shane Bobrycki, Harvard University, "A Hypothetical Slave in Constantinople. Amalarius’s Liber Officialis and the Mediterranean Slave Trade” (Kimberly LoPrete, National University of Ireland, Galway)

2012 Carolyn Twomey, Boston College, "Kings as Catechumens: Royal Conversion Narratives and Easter in the Historia Ecclesiastica"  (Elisabeth van Houts, University of Cambridge)

2011 Susanna Throop, Ursinus College, "Christian Society on the Second Crusade: Religious Practices in the De expugnatione Lyxbonensi" (Howard Clarke, University College Dublin)

2010 Thomas McCarthy, New College, Florida, "Frutolf of Michelsberg's Chronicle, the Schools of Bamberg and the preservation of Imperial Polemic" (Thomas Bisson, Harvard University)

2009 Kerrith Davies, Christ Church, University of Oxford "The Count of the Côtentin - Western Normandy, William of Mortain and the Career of Henry I" (Wendy Davies, University College, London)

2008 Sally Shockro, Boston College, “Bede and the Rewriting of Sanctity" (Daniel Powers, Swansea University)

2007 Austin Mason, Boston College, “Buried Buckets: Ritual Behavior before England's Conversion” (Peter Coss, Cardiff University, Wales)

2006 Charles Stanton, “The Uses of Naval Power in the Norman Conquest of Southern Italy and Sicily” (Kenneth Pennington, Catholic University of America)

2005 Nicholas Paul, Fordham University, “The Chronicle of Fulk le Réchin: A Reassessment” (William Aird, Cardiff University, Wales)

2004 Peter Crooks, “'Hobbes', 'Dogs' and Politics in the Ireland of Lionel of Antwerp, 1361-6” (Richard Abels, US Naval Academy)

2003 Nathaniel Lane Taylor, Harvard University, "Kin and the Courts: Testimony of Kinship in Lawsuits of Angevin England" (Robin Fleming, Boston College)

2002 Diana Korngiebel, Worcester College: "Forty Acres and a Mule: The Mechanics of English Settlement in Northeast Wales after the Edwardian Conquest" (Ralph Turner, Florida State University)

2001 Alan Cooper, Colgate University: "The Anglo-Saxon Law of the Highway" (Bernard S. Bachrach, University of Minnesota)

2000 Shashi Jayakumar, Balliol College, Oxford: "Some Reflections on the 'Foreign Policies' of Edgar 'the Peaceable'"; and Jennifer Paxton, Georgetown University: "Forging Communities: Memory and Identity in Post-Conquest England" (Janet S. Loengard, Moravian College)

1999 John Cotts, UC Berkeley: "The Critique of the Secular Clergy in Peter of Blois and Nigellus de Longchamp" (Sally N. Vaughn, University of Houston)

1998 Laura Gathagan, City University of New York: "The Trappings of Power: The Coronation of Matilda of Flanders" (James J. Johns, Cornell University)

1997 Emily Albu, UC Davis: "The Normans and Their Myths" (C.P. Lewis, University of Liverpool)

1996 Robert Helmerichs, UC Santa Barbara: "Princeps, Comes, Dux Normannorum: Rollonid Designators and Their Significance" (Susan Reynolds, Senior Fellow, Institute of Historical Research, London)

1995 Deborah Gerish, UC Santa Barbara: "The True Cross and the Kings of Jerusalem" (David Abulafia, University of Cambridge)

1994 Emma Cownie, University of Wales: "Religious Patronage at Post-Conquest Bury St. Edmunds" (Richard Helmholz, University of Chicago Law School)

1993 Cary L. Dier, University of Houston: "The Proper Relationship between Lord and Vassal: Toward a Rationale for Anglo-Norman Litigation" (H.E.J. Cowdrey, St Edmund Hall, Oxford)

1992 Hugh Thomas, University of Miami: "Portrait of a Medieval Anti-Semite: Richard Malebisse Vero Agnomine Mala Bestia" (David Crouch, University College, Scarborough; University of Leeds)

1991 Robert Babcock, UC Santa Barbara: "Imbeciles and Normans: The Ynfydion of Gruffudd ap Rhys Reconsidered" (Robert L. Benson, UCLA)

1990 Ted Johnson-South, University of Rhode Island: "Competition for King Alfred's Aura in the Last Century of Anglo-Saxon England" (Emily Tabuteau, Michigan State University)

1989 Kimberley LoPrete, University of Chicago: "The Anglo-Norman Card of Adela of Blois" (Marjorie Chibnall, University of Cambridge)

1988 Donald Fleming, UC Santa Barbara: "Milites as Attestors to Charters in England, 1101-1300" (W. L. Warren, The Queen's University of Belfast)

1987 Lynn K. Barker, North Carolina State University: "MS Bodl. Canon. Pal. Lat. 131 and a Lost Lactantius of John of Salisbury: Evidence in Search of a French Critic of Thomas Becket"(Michael Clanchy, University of London)

1986 Mary Lou Ruud, UC Santa Barbara: "Episcopal Reluctance: Lanfranc's Resignation Reconsidered" (Peter Sawyer, Emeritus, University of Leeds)

1985 Michael E. Jones, Bates College: "The Historicity of the Alleluja Victory" (R.H.C. Davis, University of Birmingham; Merton College, Oxford)

1984 Sally N. Vaughn, University of Houston: "Lanfranc at Bec: A Reinterpretation" (Paul Hyams, Pembroke College, Oxford)

1983 Katharin Mack, UC Santa Barbara: "Changing Thegns: Cnut's Conquest and the English Aristocracy" (Robert Patterson, University of South Carolina)