The Magnate Household in Medieval England

Lordship and Service, c.1100-c.1400
Erscheinungsjahr 2026
ISBN: 978-1-83765-505-2
Verlag: Boydell & Brewer Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 290 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 584 g

A radical reappraisal of lord-follower relations in the Middle Ages.

Orthodox scholarship holds that "feudalism", based on land tenure, dominated lord-follower relations during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, developing in the later Middle Ages into "bastard feudalism", based on life annuities and cash fees awarded in contracts. This study, conversely, suggests that there was no such evolution from one system to another. Instead, it was the magnate household - the familia or meisnie - that provided the structure for these relationships from the Norman Conquest until at least the end of the fourteenth century, and was usually identified as the lord's following, in peace and war alike. The customary terms of household service could be modified, and it was these modifications that were incorporated in the service contracts that begin to survive from the late thirteenth century. The study also reviews the continuities over the longer period in the ways followers were rewarded, and the frequency with which individuals moved between the service of different lords, typically serving more than one over the course of a career. Ultimately, the magnate household emerges as the defining institution of aristocratic life and lordly power, reshaping our understanding of how power, loyalty and service were organised in medieval England.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Wells-Furby, Bridget

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie Mittelalterliche, neuzeitliche Archäologie (Europa)

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction
Appendix: Note on Terminology

Part I: Chronology
1. Household service c.1100 to c.1290
2. The advent of household contracts 1290-1330
3. Household service c.1330 to c.1400

Part II: Household Service in Practice
4. Rewards for service
5. Service relationships: the flexibility of household service

Conclusions

Appendix 1: contracts for household service
Appendix 2: agreements for household places
Appendix 3: single services
Appendix 4: the Damory household ordinance (1319)

Über Autor(innen)

Wells-Furby, Bridget
BRIDGET WELLS-FURBY is an independent scholar whose research focus is England in the reigns of Edward I and Edward II. Her principal interest in the many factors that influenced the creation, growth, and dissolution of landed estates has provoked an eclectic range of published research, covering many aspects of the lives of the English nobility and gentry.