Fiefs And Vassals : The Medieval Evidence Reinterpreted Paperback

Susan Reynolds

Fiefs and Vassals has changed 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 tha they provide a bad guide to the realities of medieval society. This is a radical new examination of relations between rulers, nobles, and free men, the distillation of wide-ranging research by a leading medieval historian. It has revolutionized the way we think of the Middle Ages

9780198206484

English

Oxford University Press

1 Aug 96

556

Susan Reynolds is Emeritus Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. She is the author of An Introduction to the History of English Medieval Towns (OUP, 1977; CPB 1982), and Kingdoms and Communities in Western Europe 900-1300 (OUP, 1984; CPB 1986). She lives in London SW.

The underlying thesis, sustained with verve and learning, is that much early medieval evidence has been given a misleading juridical coherence ... the book should make us far more sensitive both to vocabulary and to our own preconceptions. * Timothy Reuter, University of Southampton, Early Medieval Europe 1996 5(2) * the reader's way is greatly eased by a lucid, engaging style that avoids jargon and any attempt at deconstructive methodology ... Undoubtedly it will form a watershed in our understanding of medieval society. * Richard Kay, University of Kansas, The Historian * Our champion is mightily armed: the learning and erudition that Dr Reynolds has at her disposal may be seen not just in the substantial bibliography but on every page of this long (and very attractively priced) book. * Roger Collins, University of Edinburgh, History * Reynolds uncovers a plethora of items for further research that will keep scholars busy on important topics for a long time ... her contribution is massive and dominating in its breadth and depth. Those of us who have merely picked away at the feudal Middle Ages in our articles and books are immeasurably in her debt for this heroic effort. * Bernard S. Bachrach, University of Minnesota, Albion * Susan Reynolds gained our enduring respect in 1984 with her magisterial Kingdoms and Communities in Western Europe, 900-1300, and now with this work, her reputation will only be enhanced......Reynolds uncovers a plethora of items for further research that will keep scholars busy on important topics for a long time..... Those of us who have merely picked away at the feudal Middle Ages in our articles and books are immeasurably in her debt for this heroic effort. * Albion * Dr Reynolds pits her formidable resources of learning, subtlety and not least common sense. Her...book sets out to show how it simply is not true that medieval society was organised or even envisaged in accordance with the feudal principles at any date until long after what historians regard as their heyday...she substitutes an alternative, more modulated and so inherently more plausible model of the history of the relationships in question...This, then, is a book