England under the Norman and Angevin Kings: 1075-1225

Front Cover
OUP Oxford, 2000 M01 27 - 810 pages
This vivid and and comprehensive account of the politics, religion, and culture of England in the century and a half after the Norman Conquest lays bare the patterns of everyday life, and increases our understanding of medieval society at a time when England was more closely tied to Europe than ever before. This was a period in which the ruling dynasty and military aristocracy were deeply enmeshed with the politics and culture of France. The book describes their conflicts and their preoccupations: the sense of honour, the role of violence, and the glitter of tournament, heraldry, and Arthurian romance. The author explores the mechanics of their government, and analyses the part played by the Church at a time of radical developments in religious life and organization. He investigates the role of ordinary men and women: the fundamental importance of the peasant economy, the growing urban and commercial arenas; and also their outlook on the world, including their views on the past; on sexuality; on animals; on death, the undead and the occult. The result is a fascinating and complex account of a period which begins with conquest and ends in assimilation.
 

Contents

Introduction
1
Political Patterns
4
England and Beyond
68
Lordship and Government
121
The Aristocracy
202
Warfare
252
The Rural Foundations
287
Towns and Trade
331
Religious Life
442
Cultural Patterns
482
The Course of Life
535
Cosmologies
616
Chronology of Political Events
693
The Sources
695
Index of Persons and Places
707
Index of Subjects
765

The Institutional Church
377

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Wardlaw Prof. of Medieval History

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