The Moral Economy of the Countryside
Anglo-Saxon to Anglo-Norman England

How were manorial lords in the twelfth and thirteenth century able to appropriate peasant labour? And what does this reveal about the changing attitudes and values of medieval England? Considering these questions from the perspective of the 'moral economy', the web of shared values within a society, Rosamond Faith offers a penetrating portrait of a changing world. Anglo-Saxon lords were powerful in many ways but their power did not stem directly from their ownership of land. The values of early medieval England - principally those of rank, reciprocity and worth - were shared across society. The Norman Conquest brought in new attitudes both to land and to the relationship between lords and peasants, and the Domesday Book conveyed the novel concept of 'tenure'. The new 'feudal thinking' permeated all relationships concerned with land: peasant farmers were now manorial tenants, owing labour and rent. Many people looked back to better days.

Awards

• Winner, 2020 Joan Thirsk Memorial Prize, British Agricultural History Society

Reviews & endorsements

'In the third of a sequence of magisterial and thought provoking books about early English rural society, Rosamond Faith forces us to face the problem of how lordship managed to establish itself in Anglo-Saxon England at all. Her profound and radical understanding of how peasant life works on the ground shines through at every point. Everyone who is interested in English society before 1200, or indeed later, will have to read this book.' Chris Wickham, University of Oxford

Customer reviews

Product details

• Date Published: October 2019
• format: Paperback
• isbn: 9781108720069
• length: 244 pages

• dimensions: 228 x 154 x 14 mm
• weight: 0.37kg
• availability: Available