Survival and Discord in Medieval Society—Essays in Honour of Christopher Dyer

This series comprises regional studies in the rural history of the European continent during the Middle Ages (concentrating on the period 1000-1500). Integrating written records, archaeology, and research on the history of the landscape and environment, the books profile work on particular regions in detail. Implicitly and explicitly the series seeks to generate a comparative vocabulary and understanding of phenomena that heretofore have been studied in their local settings. These studies offer broader implications for the history of the seigneurial regime of the Middle Ages and concern such topics as the history of servitude, the settlement of the land, the functioning of the economy, food, and agricultural practices.

This book, a tribute to an exceptional scholar known for his broad-ranging interests, brings together the new work of students, friends, and colleagues of Prof. Dyer. The volume reflects his interests in the twin disciplines of history and archaeology and his ground-breaking work in medieval standards of living, social tensions, and town-country relations. The varied and stimulating essays presented in this volume examine a host of critical issues dealing with diet, settlement, employment opportunities, taxation, credit and debt, and the tensions felt in town and country alike which often exploded into full-scale revolt. This new work not only looks at these issues from the standpoint of new evidence and theoretical perspectives, but also imparts a strong sense of the controversy surrounding many of these central issues in medieval history, ranging from how well common people managed to live and reproduce to the nature of their relationships with each other and with their social superiors. The volume, in short, stimulates a vital reconsideration of many of the key concerns pertaining to the study of medieval societies.