Fiefs And Vassals: The Medieval Evidence Reinterpreted

Fiefs And Vassals: The Medieval Evidence Reinterpreted

Fiefs and Vassals is a book that will change our view of the medieval world. Offering a fundamental challenge to orthodox conceptions of feudalism, Susan Reynolds argues that the concepts of fiefs and vassalage that have been central to the understanding of medieval society for hundreds of years are in fact based on a misunderstanding of the primary sources. Reynolds demonstrates convincingly that the ideas of fiefs and vassalage as currently understood, far from being the central structural elements of medieval social and economic relations, are a conceptual lens through which historians have focused the details of medieval life. This lens, according to Reynolds, distorts more than it clarifies. With the lens removed, the realities of medieval life will have the chance to appear as they really are: more various, more individual, more complex, and perhaps richer than has previously been supposed. This is a radical new examination of social relations within the noble class and between lords and their vassals, the distillation of wide-ranging research by a leading medieval historian. It will revolutionize the way we think of the Middle Ages.Review"Reynolds's argument is detailed and impressive and generally convincing....An important work and so clearly presented that it could be used by upper-division undergraduates."--CHOICE"Thanks to her thoroughgoing critique of the conventional concept of 'feudalism,' historians will have to reconsider some of their most fundamental questions about the social structure and political organization of the central Middle Ages. Reynolds joins Jean Durliat and Dominique Barthelemy, among others, in shaking the foundations of what was once our confidently accepted common wisdom. We are clearly in for an exciting ride. Her book is one that everyone concerned with the period should read, reread, and ponder."--Speculum, A Journal of Medieval Studies"Undoubtedly it will form a watershed in our understanding of medieval society."--The Historian"[H]as provided the basic model for discussion of fiefs and vassals...Reynolds uncovers a plethora of items for further research that will keep scholars busy on important topics for a long time....It is also important to emphasize that her contribution is massive and dominating in its breadth and depth...[T]hose of us who have merley picked away at the feudal Middle Ages in our articles and books are immeasurably in her debt for this heroic effort."--he Albion"This is an important and couragious book of considerable achievement, which foretells radical changes of approach and interpretation."--Journal of Interdisciplinary History"[T]his book is valuable as a polemic against certain forms of conventional wisdom and obscurantism that have not yet been fully extirpated from medieval historiography."--Law and History ReviewFrom the Back CoverFiefs and Vassals sets out to change our view of the medieval world. It offers a fundamental challenge to orthodox conceptions of feudalism. Susan Reynolds argues that the concepts of the fief and of vassalage, as understood by historians of medieval Europe, were constructed by post-medieval scholars from the works of medieval academic lawyers and that they provide a bad guide to the realities of medieval society.About the AuthorSusan Reynolds is Emeritus Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. She is the author ofAn Introduction to the History of English Medieval Towns (OUP, 1977; CPB 1982), andKingdoms and Communities in Western Europe 900-1300 (OUP, 1984; CPB 1986).