Where the Middle Ages Begin
In the period when agriculture dominated almost every aspect of daily life, the lords and wealthy peasants relied on paid labourers for farming business, yardlanders hired labourers to work with them, whilst moderate and landless villagers worked for hire. Agrarian wage labour is a window on the economy as well as on agricultural society.
The early historiography of feudal law coalesced as the point of articulation for a discourse of time (the rejection/reclamation of a “barbaric” past) and a discourse of power (the theorization of the sovereign relation), and ultimately yielded a period concept foundational to “modern” theories of state.
The thesis seeks to analyse the nature of the Dunbar lordship, uncovering its particular and essential features, yet placing and assessing it in the context of twelfth and thirteenth-century Scottish aristocratic society.
One of the fiercest and most productive historical debates – and one of the most ideology-laden – has been that on the transition from feudalism to capitalism.1 Although interest in this specific debate and its ideological implications seems to be waning now, the importance of reconstructing and explaining long-term changes in economy and society is still clear.
In my study, the town in late medieval Bulgaria is conceptualized as an explanandum, not as an explanans, as part of the social and economic environment rather than some distinctive entity.
In this thesis, I demonstrate the significance of feudal law to European populations and how it functions as a source of maintenance of peace and stability of land tenure.
A motte was made partially or completely by human hands, surrounded by a ditch, and topped by a wooden tower.
A German legal historian, Paul Roth, published in 1850 a work that set out the basic concept of feudalism. According to Roth, Charles Martel had combined the two existing institutions of ‘vassalage’ and ‘benefice’—that is, a vassal swore allegiance to his lord in return for which he was given some kind of benefice, usually rent-free land.
The most important extant document for our understanding of Anglo-Saxon manorial social structure is a text scholars call the Rectitudines singularum personarum
This paper discussed the mutually beneficial relationship between Philip II and women, and their experiences in wielding power during his rule.
Facing the Black Death: perceptions and reactions of university medical practitioners ARRIZABALAGA, JON Practical Medicine from Salerno to the Black Death, Cambridge University Press (1994) Abstract Between late 1347 and early 1348 a great disaster, which is nowadays known as the Black Death, began to spread all over Europe. By 1351 thís terrifying plague, which plunged […]
Cross-Channel communication and the end of the ‘Anglo-Norman realm’: Robert FitzWalter and the Valognes inheritance By Daniel Power Tabularia, No.11 (2011) Abstract: The collapse of the ‘Anglo-Norman realm’ in 1204 placed the Anglo-Norman aristocracy in an uneviable position, as most of its members were forced to choose between keeping their English or their French lands. […]
Warranty and good lordship in twelfth century England Hyams, Paul (California Institute of Technology University of Oxford) California Institute of Technology, January (1986) Abstract Already in the twelfth century, men canvassed different views on the ways in which they thought lordship ought to be exercised. They used their picture of how an idealised “Good Lord” — a […]
THE WILL AND SOCIETY IN MEDIEVAL CATALONIA AND LANGUEDOC, 800-1200 Taylor, Nathaniel Lane PhD Philosopy, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, April (1995) Abstract Some three thousand men and women of Languedoc and Catalonia (southwestern France and northeastern Spain) from before the year 1200 speak to us through their testaments. This volume of testamentary evidence is unmatched in […]
Medieval Archaeology in Poland; Current Problems and Research Methods Leciejewicz, Lech (Director of Zaklad Archeologii Nadodrza, Institute of History of Material Culture of Polish Academy of Sciences, Wroclaw) Archeology Data Service, The University of York, Vol. 20, (1976) Abstract This paper was delivered by Professor Leciejewicz; to the Society at its annual general meeting in 1975. […]
The Feudal Revolution and Europe’s Rise: Institutional Divergence in the Christian and Muslim Worlds before 1500 CE By Lisa Blaydes and Eric Chaney Published Online (2011) Abstract: This paper investigates the political origins of Europe’s economic rise by examining the emergence of increasing ruler durability in Western Europe when compared with the Islamic world. While […]
The Emergence and Formation of the Second Estate as the Knightly Class in France, 814-1230 By Christopher Connor Distinguished Senior Thesis, Pacific University, 2006 Introduction: The knight is one the most prominent archetypal figures of the medieval period; he not only dominated warfare, but the political and cultural spheres of society as well. The knightly […]
The “convenientiae” of the Catalan counts in the eleventh century: a diplomatic and historical analysis By A.J. Kosto Acta historica et archaeologica mediaevalia, No.19 (1998) Introduction: Pierre Bonnassie’s identification of the significance of the convenientia is among rhe most important of his many contributions to out understanding of the Catalan counties in the eleventh century. […]
Real and imagined feudalism in highland Georgia By Kevin Tuite Amirani, Vol.7 (2002) Introduction: During the 8th-9th centuries, a system of land tenure and political organization that has been described as “feudal” arose in the Transcaucasus. As in Western Europe, Georgian feudalism was characterized by (1) the hierarchical and personal relation between vassal and lord […]
Some reflections on violence, reconciliation and the “feudal revolution” By Fredric L. Cheyette Conflict in Medieval Europe, ed. Piotr Gorecki and Warren Brown ( Ashgate, 2003) Introduction: When Georges Duby died, I was moved to read once again the book that first made his reputation and that for many medievalists represents his masterpiece, La société aux […]
The idea of the Renaissance as a historical period was first formulated by Jacob
Burckhardt in his book Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien (1860). In this lecture I want to review some of the many directions taken by Renaissance studies since then, and to make some suggestions for future work.
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