The articles in this book, reprinted from the journal Past and Present, are all, in different ways, concerned with the ownership of landed property in medieval England and with those who worked the land. Problems debated include those concerning the keeping intact of the great estates of the Anglo-Norman barons in the face of both inheritance claims and of political manipulation by the crown. Other articles show that the difficulties of knights and lesser gentry were no less complex, as social shifts resulted from economic developments as well as from their military role and their relationships with their overlords. The essays are of as much importance for those interested in the history of politics as to those concerned with the economy and society of medieval England.
This volume of essays in honour of Professor R. H. Hilton is presented by some of his numerous friends and pupils. It attempts to reflect his wide-ranging interests while highlighting certain themes and preserving some distinct degree of unity. The essays illustrate his abiding concern with the social structure, the rural economy and the mentalité of the Middle Ages. They also indicate that his interests have have always been pursued with the use of the widest possible range of sources so that archaeological and literary evidence are employed, as in his own work, alongside the sources more usually familiar to social historians. This book will be of permanent interest to all historians and particularly those specialising in social and economic history.
Few historical issues have occasioned such discussion since at least the time of Marx as the transition from feudalism to capitalism in Western Europe. The Brenner Debate, which reprints from Past and
