The Birth Of Nobility ─ Constructing Aristocracy In England And France 900-1300

For 300 years scholars in Britain and France have been working industriously to explain the idea of medieval aristocracy. One part of this book analyses this enormous international field of publications, and breaks it down into four debates: on noble conduct, noble lineage, noble class and noble power. It identifies the points of divergence in the national traditions in each of these debates, and where they have been mutually incomprehensible. It integrates American historiography into the British and French debates as it touches on each.

But in addition to all this, the book presents an entirely new perspective on each of the four great debates. Each is subjected to a thorough review by comparing current scholarship with what a vast range of historical source material actually says about each.

David Crouch is professor of medieval history at the University of Hull. He is an aurthority on twelfth-and thirteenth-century English and Norman history. His works on aristocracy include: The Beaumont Twins (Cambridge, 1986); The Image of Aristocracy in Britain , 1000-1300 (Routledge); William Marshal (2nd edn, Longman). He has also published The Reign of King Stephen, 1135-1154 (Longman) and The Normans: the History of a Dynasty (Hambledon).