Life on the English Manor: A Study of Peasant Conditions 1150–1400

by H. S. Bennett

• ISBN13: 9780521091053
• ISBN10: 0521091055
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1937-01-02
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

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.

Table of Contents

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.