Conquest, Anarchy and Lordship: Yorkshire, 1066-1154 (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought: Fourth Series)

Focusing on Yorkshire, by far the largest English county, this book, first published in 1994, examines three of the most important themes in the period described by Sir Frank Stenton as 'the first century of English feudalism': the Norman conquest, the anarchy of Stephen's reign, and the nature of lordship and land tenure. In each case the book offers a strong challenge to dominant interpretations which will alter significantly our conception of Anglo-Norman politics and government. The first section of the book reveals that the Norman conquest of Yorkshire was a much more rapid and carefully controlled process than has been supposed; the second section examines the 'anarchy' of King Stephen's reign and its consequences; and the final section deals with lordship, one of the most significant aspects of medieval society. Offering many revisionary arguments throughout, the book will become essential reading on both 'the first century' and 'the legal framework' of English feudalism. Focussing on Yorkshire, by far the largest English county, this book examines three of the most important themes in the period described by Sir Frank Stenton as 'the first century of English feudalism': the Norman conquest, the anarchy of Stephen's reign and the nature of lordship and land tenure. In each case the book offers a strong challenge to dominant interpretations, and seeks to alter in significant ways our conception of Anglo-Norman politics and government. The first section of the book reveals that the Norman conquest of Yorkshire was a much more rapid and carefully controlled process than has hitherto been supposed; that, initially at least, it owed a great deal to the construction of castles and organisation of castleries; that during the reign of the Conqueror's youngest son, Henry I, its character changed as the king sought to bring Yorkshire under tighter central administrative control and promote monasticism there; and that its impact upon tenurial structure and terms of land tenure, although considerable, has been overestimated. The second section of the book examines the anarchy of King Stephen's reign and its consequences in Yorkshire. It challenges the view that Stephen's creation of earls was a deliberate attempt to impose an alternative conception of government, and illustrates how the greater magnates profited from, and in some cases sought to promote, a failure of royal control. The final section of the book deals with lordship, one of the most significant aspects of medieval society. It challenges Stenton's conception of twelfth-century society as a 'seignorial world' organised principally around the honour and dominated by baronial lordship. It reveals that on some (perhaps many) honours the bonds of association between the tenantry, and the powers of lords over their men, were weaker than Stenton supposed, and that royal intervention in the honour was far more regular. In doing so it undermines one of the basic premises of those legal Focusing on Yorkshire, by far the largest English county, this book examines three of the most important themes in the period described by Sir Frank Stenton as "the first century of English feudalism": the Norman conquest, the anarchy of Stephen's reign, and the nature of lordship and land tenure. In each case the book offers a strong challenge to dominant and accepted historical interpretations that will alter significantly our conception of Anglo-Norman politics and government. By 1071 the last native-led rebellion against Norman authority in Yorkshire had been suppressed, and most of the leading Anglo-Scandinavian thanes in the region who had resisted William the Conqueror and his followers were either dead, in prison or in exile.