Life on the English Manor: A Study of Peasant Conditions 1150–1400 (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought: Fourth Series)
Cambridge University Press
Edition: Illustrated, 1/2/1937
EAN 9780521091053, ISBN10: 0521091055
Paperback, 396 pages, 20.3 x 12.7 x 2.2 cm
Language: English
This book gives a picture of the daily and yearly round of the English peasant in the Middle Ages. H. S. Bennett explains the feudal system which linked the poor man to the soil and to the service of his lord and the church in a pattern of customary dues and rights, payments, labours and small privileges. The author gives lively details of the pattern of medieval country life: the influence of the seasons and the state of contemporary knowledge on the work of the fields; the place of religion in everyday life; the workings of feudal justice; popular attitudes to the social structure; the business of getting a living. Since all the inhabitants of England outside the few large towns were essentially countrymen, this is an introduction to life in medieval England as a whole.
Author's preface
Dedicatory letter
Prologue
a faire felde ful of folke
1. The church
2. The manor and its cultivation
3. The manorial population
4. The peasant's year
5. Rents and services
6. Servile burdens
7. Manorial administration
8. The manor court
9. Everyday life
10. 'Merrie England'
11. The road to freedom
12. The church
Glossary
Abbreviations and authorities
Index.