Seminar and Essay Questions

• Should medieval society be analysed in terms of class divisions, or in terms of orders/estates?

• Given the regional differences of 'feudalism', can the term be used by historians to adequately describe the political/military relationships governing medieval European society?

Documents

• A dispute over exaction of the corvee, 1081
• Duties of Vassals and Lords
• Abbot Suger: Life Of Louis VII

Essential Reading

Barber, The Two Cities, pp. 36-41

Power, Central Middle Ages, Intro and chap. 1

Bartlett, The Making of Europe, pp. 45-7, 50-59, 85-96

Recommended Reading

C. Bicchieri, R. Muldoon, A. Sontuoso, 'Social Norms', Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2018)

Rigby, S., 'Introduction: Social Structure and Economic Change in Late Medieval England' in A Social History of England 200-1500, R. Horrox and M. Ormrod (eds), (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006)

Abels, Richard, 'The Historiography of a Construct: "Feudalism" and the Medieval Historian', History Compass 7/3 (2009), 1008-1031

E-resources

The forms of feudalism ('Turbulent Priests'; Dr Charles West)

Early Medieval Charters: A Guide For Students

Henry I's coronation

Further Reading

Feudalism

Barthélemy, Dominique, 'Revisiting the "Feudal Revolution" of the Year 1000' in The Serf, the Knight and the Historian (New York: Ithaca, 2009)

Bartlett, Robert, England under the Norman and Angevin kings, 1075-1225 (2000).

Bisson, Thomas N., 'Medieval Lordship', Speculum 70 (1995), 743-59.

Bisson, Thomas N., 'The Feudal Revolution', Past and Present 142 (1994), 6-42.

Bloch, Marc, Feudal Society, 2nd ed., 2 vols (London, 1965)

Brown, Elizabeth, 'The Tyranny of a Construct: Feudalism and Historians of Medieval Europe', American Historical Review 79.4 (1974), 1063-88.

Cheyette, Frederic L., 'Review of Susan Reynolds, Fiefs and Vassals', Speculum 71 (1996), 998-1006.

Duby, Georges, The Early Growth of the European Economy: Warriors and Peasants from the Seventh to the Twelfth Century (Ithaca, NY, 1974)

Duby, Georges, The Three Orders: Feudal Society Imagined (Chicago, 1980).

Duggan, Anne, Kings and Kingship in Medieval Europe (1993).

Fuhrmann, Horst, Germany in the High Middle Ages c. 1050 - 1200 (1986).

Ganshof, F. L., Feudalism, trans. Philip Grierson (London, 1952).

Geary, Patrick J., The Myth of Nations : The Medieval Origins of Europe (Princeton : Princeton University Press, 2002)

Hallam, Elizabeth, Capetian France, 987–1328 (2001).

Head, T., and R. Landes (eds), The Peace of God: Social Violence and Religious Response in France Around the Year 1000 (Ithaca, NY, 1992)

Hyams, Paul R., 'The End of Feudalism? Review of Susan Reynolds, Fiefs and Vassals', Journal of Interdisciplinary History 27 (1997), 655-62.

Innes, Matthew, 'Economies and Societies in Early Medieval Western Europe' in C. Landing and E. English eds., A Companion to the Medieval World (Oxford, 2009)

Leyser, Karl, Medieval Germany and its Neighbours, 900–1250 (1982).

Linehan, Peter, Spain, 1157–1300: A Partible Inheritance (2008).

Reuter, Timothy et al., 'Debate: The Feudal Revolution', Past and Present 155 (1997), 177-225.

Reynolds, Susan, Kingdoms and Communities, 900–1300 (1997).

Reynolds, Susan, Fiefs and Vassals (Oxford, 1994).

Reynolds, Susan, 'Nations, Tribes, Peoples and States', Medieval Worlds 1.2 (2015), 79-88.