Re-Thinking Kinship and Feudalism in Early Medieval Europe (Variorum Collected Studies)

This is the second collection of studies by Stephen D. White to be published by Variorum (the first being Feuding and Peace-Making in Eleventh-Century France). The essays in this volume look principally at France and England from Merovingian and Anglo-Saxon times up to the 12th century. They analyze Latin and Old French discourses that medieval nobles used to construct their relationships with kin, lords, men, and friends, and investigate the political dimensions of such relationships with particular reference to patronage/clientage, the use of land as an item of exchange, and feuding. In so doing, the essays call into question the conventional practice of studying kinship and feudalism as independent systems of legal institutions and propose new strategies for studying them. Cover 1 Series 3 Half Title 4 Title 6 Copyright 7 Contents 8 Introduction 10 Acknowledgements 20 Dedication 21 I Maitland on family and kinship 22 II The invention of English individualism: Alan Macfarlane and the modernization of pre-modern England (with Richard T. Vann) 46 III Clotild’s revenge: politics, kinship, and ideology in the Merovingian blood feud 66 IV Kinship and lordship in early medieval England: the story of Sigeberht, Cynewulf, and Cyneheard 90 V The discourse of inheritance in twelfth-century France: alternative models of the fief in ‘Raoul de Cambrai’ 108 VI English feudalism and its origins 133 VII Stratégie rhétorique dans la Conventio de Hugues de Lusignan 152 VIII The politics of fidelity in early eleventh-century France: Fulbert of Chartres, William of Aquitaine, and Hugh of Lusignan 164 IX Book Review: Susan Reynolds, Fiefs and Vassals: The Medieval Evidence Reinterpreted 174 X The politics of exchange: gifts, fiefs, and feudalism 182 XI Giving fiefs and honor: largesse, avarice, and the problem of “feudalism” in Alexander’s testament 200 XII Service for fiefs or fiefs for service: the politics of reciprocity 216 XIII A crisis of fidelity in c. 1000? 252 Index 276 Civilisation médiévale,Civilization,Medieval,Europa,Europe,Feudalism,Feudalism Europe,Feudalism Europe History To 1500,Feudalismus,Féodalité Europe Histoire Jusqu'à 1500,History,Kinship,Kinship Europe History To 1500,Land tenure,Land tenure Europe History To 1500,Parenté Europe Histoire Jusqu'à 1500,Seigneuries Europe Histoire Jusqu'à 1500,To 1500,Verwandtschaft This is the second collection of studies by Stephen D. White to be published by Variorum (the first being Feuding and Peace-Making in Eleventh-Century France). The essays in this volume look principally at France and England from Merovingian and Anglo-Saxon times up to the 12th century. They analyze Latin and Old French discourses that medieval nobles used to construct their relationships with kin, lords, men, and friends, and investigate the political dimensions of such relationships with particular reference to patronage/clientage, the use of land as an item of exchange, and feuding. In so doing, the essays call into question the conventional practice of studying kinship and feudalism as independent systems of legal institutions and propose new strategies for studying them. Cover 1 Series 3 Half Title 4 Title 6 Copyright 7 Contents 8 Introduction 10 Acknowledgements 20 Dedication 21 I Maitland on family and kinship 22 II The invention of English individualism: Alan Macfarlane and the modernization of pre-modern England (with Richard T. Vann) 46 III Clotild’s revenge: politics, kinship, and ideology in the Merovingian blood feud 66 IV Kinship and lordship in early medieval England: the story of Sigeberht, Cynewulf, and Cyneheard 90 V The discourse of inheritance in twelfth-century France: alternative models of the fief in ‘Raoul de Cambrai’ 108 VI English feudalism and its origins 133 VII Stratégie rhétorique dans la Conventio de Hugues de Lusignan 152 VIII The politics of fidelity in early eleventh-century France: Fulbert of Chartres, William of Aquitaine, and Hugh of Lusignan 164 IX Book Review: Susan Reynolds, Fiefs and Vassals: The Medieval Evidence Reinterpreted 174 X The politics of exchange: gifts, fiefs, and feudalism 182 XI Giving fiefs and honor: largesse, avarice, and the problem of “feudalism” in Alexander’s testament 200 XII Service for fiefs or fiefs for service: the politics of reciprocity 216 XIII A crisis of fidelity in c. 1000? 252 Index 276 Civilisation médiévale,Civilization,Medieval,Europa,Europe,Feudalism,Feudalism Europe,Feudalism Europe History To 1500,Feudalismus,Féodalité Europe Histoire Jusqu'à 1500,History,Kinship,Kinship Europe History To 1500,Land tenure,Land tenure Europe History To 1500,Parenté Europe Histoire Jusqu'à 1500,Seigneuries Europe Histoire Jusqu'à 1500,To 1500,Verwandtschaft Focusing on France and England from the Merovingian and early Anglo-Saxon eras up to about 1200, White analyzes Latin, Old French, and Old English texts that represent both associations among nobles and their kin, lords, men, and friends; and conflicts between and within aristocratic groups. He investigates the political dimensions of such associations, giving particular attention to patronage/clientage, the use of land as an item of exchange, rights in land, competition for honor, and outright feuds. One of the 13 essays appears here for the first time; the others are reproduced from publication between 1975 and 2004. Annotation :2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) ALTHOUGH FREDERIC WILLIAM MAITLAND DISCUSSED the medieval family in the History of English Law and produced some brilliantly polemical passages about it, he should not be mistaken for an historian of the family.