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Wednesday 10 October 2007

The Normans: Bibliography -- Ruling England

A. Williams Kingship and Government in Pre-Conquest England, c. 500-1066, Houndmills, Hampshire, 1999 and H. R. Loyn, The Governance of Anglo-Saxon England 500-1087, London, 1984 provide a valuable Anglo-Saxon context. There are a series of important articles by James Campbell on the vibrancy of the Anglo-Saxon state: ‘Observations on English Government from the Tenth to the Twelfth Century’, reprinted in his, Essays in Anglo-Saxon History, London, 1986, pages 155-70; ‘Some Agents and Agencies of the Late Anglo-Saxon State’, in J. C. Holt, Domesday Studies, Woodbridge, 1987, pages 201-18; ‘The Late Anglo-Saxon State: A Maximum View’, Proceedings of the British Academy volume 87 (1994), pages 39-65; ‘The Significance of the Anglo-Norman State in the Administrative History of Western Europe’, Beihefte der Francia volume 9 (1980), pages 117-34; ‘The United Kingdom of England: The Anglo-Saxon Achievement’, in A. Grant and K. J. Stringer, (eds.), Uniting the Kingdom? The Making of British History, London and New York, 1995, pages 31-47; and, ‘Was it Infancy in England? Some Questions of Comparison’, in M. Jones and M. Vale, (eds), England and her Neighbours, 1066-1453: Essays in Honour of Pierre Chaplais, London, 1989, pages 1-17.

W.L. Warren The Governance of Norman and Angevin England 1086-1272, London, 1987 extends Loyn’s work beyond William I’s reign. Useful articles on the Norman state include: W.L. Warren, W ‘The Myth of Norman Administrative Efficiency’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th series, volume 34 (1984), pages 113-32; J. Green ‘The Sheriffs of William the Conqueror’, Anglo-Norman Studies, volume 5 (1983), pages 129-45; C.P. Lewis ‘The Early Earls of Norman England’, Anglo-Norman Studies, volume 13 (1991), pages 207-23; J.F.A. Mason ‘The Barons and their Officials in the Later Eleventh Century’, Anglo-Norman Studies, volume 13 (1991), pages 243-62; and D.M. Palliser ‘Towns and the English State’, in J. R. Maddicott and D. M. Palliser, (eds.), The Medieval State: Essays Presented to James Campbell, London, 2000, pages 127-45.

R. C. van Caenegem The birth of the English common law, Cambridge 1974 is the best introduction to legal developments but needs to be read in relation to F. Pollock & F. W. Maitland The History of English Law, Cambridge University Press, 1895 and John Hudson The Formation of the English Common Law, London, 1996, John Hudson (ed.) The History of English Law: Centenary Essays on ‘Pollock and Maitland’, London, 1996 and Patrick Wormald The Making of English Law: King Alfred to the Twelfth Century, volume 1, Blackwell, 1999. G. W. Keeton, The Norman Conquest and the Common Law, London, 1966 looks specifically at the impact of 1066. S. F. C. Milsom, Historical Foundations of the Common Law, 2nd edition, London, 1981 and The Legal Framework of English Feudalism, The Maitland Lectures 1972, Cambridge, 1976 are contentious.

The key work on the political structure of the Anglo-Norman realm, which brings out the predicament of families with cross-channel holdings, is J.C. Holt, ‘Politics and property in early medieval England’, Past and Present, volume 57, 1972, reprinted in his Colonial England 1066-1215, Hambledon, 1997, and see the subsequent debate with Edmund King and Stephen White in Past and Present, volume 65, (1974). The politics of the Norman Vexin are explored in J. A. Green, ‘Lords of the Norman Vexin’, in War and Government in the Middle Ages: Essays in Honour of J.O. Prestwich, ed. J. Gillingham and J.C. Holt, Woodbridge, 1984 and see also Green’s ‘Unity and disunity in the Anglo-Norman state’, Historical Review, volume 62, (1989). For a reflective study of one of the major English families with limited holdings in the duchy, see A. Wareham, ‘The motives and politics of the Bigod family, c.1066-1177’, Anglo-Norman Studies, volume 17, 1994. D. Bates, ‘Normandy and England after 1066’, English Historical Review, volume 104, (1989) challenges the view that England and Normandy formed ‘a single political entity’, with rulers wielding in effect royal authority in Normandy and perhaps aspiring to create a formal Anglo-Norman kingdom, a view found in J. le Patourel, The Norman Empire, Oxford, 1976 and C.W. Hollister, Monarchy, Magnates and Institutions in the Anglo-Norman World, Hambleton, 1986, chapter 2. England and Normandy in the Middle Ages, ed. D. Bates and A. Curry (1994) has a series of valuable studies relevant to the relations between England and Normandy under both the Norman and Angevin kings. J.A. Green, The Aristocracy of Norman England, Cambridge, 1997 is a major source for the whole period down to 1154, bearing on all aspects of noble politics and society.

Changing patterns of warfare and politics are discussed in J. Gillingham, ‘1066 and the introduction of chivalry into England’, in his The English in the Twelfth Century and M. Strickland, ‘Slaughter, slavery or ransom: the impact of the Conquest on the conduct of warfare’, in England in the Eleventh Century, ed. C. Hicks, Stamford, 1992 and see also Strickland’s ‘Against the lord’s annointed: aspects of warfare and baronial rebellion in England and Normandy, 1075-1265’ in Law and Government in Medieval England and Normandy. Essays in Honour of Sir James Holt, ed.G. Garnett and J. Hudson, Cambridge, 1994. A seminal article about this period showing, among other things, the importance of mercenaries is J.O. Prestwich, ‘War and finance in the Anglo-Norman state’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th series, volume 4, (1954), reprinted in Anglo-Norman Warfare, ed. M. Strickland.

 
The economy

C. Dyer, Making a Living in the Middle Ages: The People of Britain 850-1520, London, 2002 is a major new study and one of the few books to treat Britain as a whole. The most comprehensive survey of the English economy is J.L. Bolton, The Medieval English Economy 1150-1500, 2nd edition, 1985. General works on the rural economy include J.Z. Titow, English Rural Society 1200-1350, Allen & Unwin, 1969; E. Miller and J. Hatcher, Medieval England. Rural Society and Economic Change 1086-1348, Longman, 1978; and The Agrarian History of England and Wales, volume II: 1042-1350, ed. H.E. Hallam, Cambridge, 1988. An Historical Geography of England and Wales, ed. R.A. Dodgshon and R.A. Butlin, 2nd edition, 1990, has a chapter by B.M.S. Campbell, ‘People and Land in the Middle Ages’ and there is now also Campbell’s English Seigniorial Agriculure 1250-1450, Cambridge, 2000, where chapter 8 sets out his views on the size of the population. C. Dyer, Standards of Living in the Later Middle Ages: Social Change in England 1200-1520, Cambridge, 1989 has been rightly acclaimed. For towns and commerce see S. Reynolds, An Introduction to the History of English Medieval Towns, Oxford, 1977; E. Miller and J. Hatcher Medieval England. Towns, Commerce and Crafts 1086-1348, Longman, 1995; R.H. Britnell, A Commercialising Economy. England 1086-1300, Cambridge, 1993; A Commercialising Economy: England 1086-1300, ed. R.H. Britnell and B.M.S. Campbell, Manchester, 1995 and The Cambridge Urban History of Britain I: 600-1540, ed. D. M. Palliser, Cambridge, 2000.

 
Feudal Society

Susan Reynolds Fiefs and Vassals: The Medieval Evidence Reinterpreted, Oxford, 1994 is invaluable on the complexities of feudalism as a historical concept and historical reality. J.A. Green, J. A., The Aristocracy of Norman England, Cambridge, 1997 and David Crouch The Image of Aristocracy in Britain 1000-1300, London, 1992 are the best studies of the Anglo-Norman aristocracy. These should be supplemented by articles on specific families, for example: David Crouch ‘Normans and Anglo-Normans: A Divided Aristocracy’, in Bates and Curry, England and Normandy, pages 51-67; R. Fleming ‘The New Wealth, the New Rich and the New Political Style in Late Anglo-Saxon England’, Anglo-Norman Studies, volume 23 (2001), pages 1-22; K. S. B. Keats-Rohan (ed.), Family Trees and the Roots of Politics: The Prosopography of England and France from the Tenth to the Twelfth Century, Woodbridge, 1997; Edmunc King ‘Dispute Settlement in Norman England’, Anglo-Norman Studies, volume 14 (1992), pages 115-30; J. S. Moore, J. S., ‘The Anglo-Norman Family: Size and Structure’, Anglo-Norman Studies, volume 14, (1992), pages 153-96; J. Scammell ‘The Formation of the English Social Structure: Freedom, Knights and Gentry, 1066-1300’, Speculum, volume 68 (1993), pages 591-618; and, A. Wareham ‘The “Feudal Revolution in Eleventh-Century East Anglia’, Anglo-Norman Studies, volume 22, (2000), pages 293-323.

On feudalism, lordship and the economy, see R.A. Brown Origins of English Feudalism, London, 1973 for a useful collection of sources. R. Faith The English Peasantry and the Growth of Lordship, London, 1996, H.E. Hallam Rural England 1066-1348, London, 1981 and R.V. Lennard Rural England, 1086-1135: A Study of Social and Agrarian Conditions, Oxford, 1959 are excellent on rural conditions. Important articles include: C.W. Hollister ‘1066: The Feudal Revolution’, American Historical Review, volume 73 (1968), pages 703-23, reprinted in Hollister, Monarchy, Magnates and Institutions, pages 1-16; J.C. Holt ‘Feudal Society and the Family in Early Medieval England’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th series, volume 32 (1982), pages 193-212; volume 33 (1983), pages 193-212; volume 34 (1984), pages 1-25; volume 35 (1985), pages 1-28 and ‘Politics and Property in Early Medieval England’, Past and Present volume 57 (1972), pages 3-52, all reprinted in his Colonial England 1066-1215, Hambledon, 1997; and, J.O. Prestwich ‘Anglo-Norman Feudalism and the Problem of Continuity’, Past and Present, volume 26 (1963), pages 39-57.

On the vexed question of knights and knight service see: Frank Stenton The First Century of English Feudalism, 2nd ed., Oxford University Press, 1962, an influential but increasingly challenged interpretation; Richard Abels Lordship and Military Obligation in Anglo-Saxon England, Berkeley University Press, 1988 a lucid account of pre-Conquest arrangements and should be seen as complementary to C Warren Hollister Anglo-Saxon Military Institutions, Oxford University Press, 1962 and The Military Organisation of Norman England, Oxford University Press, 1965 Useful articles on the subject include: R.A. Brown, ‘The Status of the Norman Knight’, in J. Gillingham and J. C. Holt (eds.), War and Government in the Middle Ages: Essays in Honour of J. O. Prestwich, Cambridge, 1984, pages 18-32; John Gillingham ‘The Introduction of Knight Service into England’, Anglo-Norman Studies, volume 4 (1982), pages 53-64, 181-7, reprinted with a postscript in Gillingham, The English in the Twelfth Century, pages 187-208; John Gillingham ‘Thegns and Knights in Eleventh-Century England: Who was then the Gentleman?’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 6th series, volume 5 (1995), pages 129-53, reprinted in Gillingham, The English in the Twelfth Century, pages 163-85; S. Harvey ‘The Knight and the Knight’s Fee in England’, Past and Present, volume 49 (1970), pages 1-43; and, J. C. Holt ‘The Introduction of Knight Service into England’, Anglo-Norman Studies, volume 6 (1984), pages 89-106.

For recent work which, in various ways, questions how far the honour was the cohesive and autonomous institution, the ‘feudal state in miniature’, of Stenton’s picture see D. Crouch, ‘From Stenton to McFarlane: models of society of the twefth and thirteenth centuries’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 6th series, volume 5, (1995); P. Dalton, Conquest, Anarchy and Lordship: Yorkshire 1066-1154, Cambridge, 1994, chapter 7, ‘the first century of English feudalism’; J. Hudson, Land, Law and Lordship in Anglo-Norman England, Oxford, 1994; and see more generally S. Reynolds, Fiefs and Vassals: The Medieval Evidence Reinterpreted, Oxford, 1994. Complimentary to Stenton’s picture of honourial feudalism are the ideas in S. E. Thorne, ‘English feudalism and estates in land’, Cambridge Law Journal, 1959 and S.F.C. Milsom, The Legal Framework of English Feudalism, Cambridge, 1976. Milsom and Thorne argue that in was only after the assize of mort d’ancestor in 1176 that fees became hereditary and thus that property right and ownership were established. Prior to that (to quote John Hudson’s summary) in a ‘world...where the honour was a “feudal state in miniature”, family succession might be usual, indeed supported by custom, but the lord retained discretion as to whether the lands of the deceased tenant should pass to the heir.’ By contrast Chapters 3 and 4 of Hudson’s, Land, Law and Lordship in Anglo-Norman England show in detail that in many ways the hereditability of land was already well established in the first half of the twelfth century and that the assize of mort d’ancestor only hardened and extended existing ideas and practice. Approaching from a particular angle, P.R.Hyams in ‘Warranty and good lordship in twelfth-century England’, Law and History Review, volume 5, (1987), acutely argues a similar case. The existence of hereditary succession in Norman England is also a theme in J.C. Holt, ‘Politics and property in early medieval England’ in his Colonial England. Milsom’s ideas are most easily approached in the first instance through the explanation and critique by Paul Brand in chapter 9 of his Making of the Common Law, a chapter which also discusses the views advanced in R.C. Palmer, ‘The origins of property in England’, Law and History Review volume 3, (1985).

 
The Church

Frank Barlow, The English Church 1000-1066: A History of the Later Anglo-Saxon Church, 2nd edition, London and New York, 1979 and The English Church, 1066-1154: A History of the Anglo-Norman Church, London and New York, 1979 remains the best introduction. Henry Loyn The English Church 940-1154, Longman, 2000 is shorter. Andrew Brown Church and Society In England 1000-1500, Palgranve 2003 takes a longer perspective.

C.N.L. and R. Brooke ‘The Bishops of England and Normandy in the Eleventh Century: A Contrast’, in C. N. L. Brooke Churches and Churchmen in Medieval Europe, London, 2000, pages 107-16 is a valuable study but should be read in relation to Pierre Bouet and François Neveux (eds.) Les évêques normands du XIe siècle, Colloque de Cerisy-la-Salle, 1993, Caen: Université de Caen, 1995 and H. R. Loyn, ‘William’s Bishops: Some Further Thoughts’, Anglo-Norman Studies, volume 10 (1988), pages 223-35. On the relationshiop between England and the Papacy, Z.N. Brooke, English Church and Papacy from the Conquest to the Reign of John, 2nd edition, Cambridge, 1989 remains invaluable but needs to be supplemented by H. E. J. Cowdrey, ‘Pope Gregory VII and the Anglo-Norman Church and Kingdom’, Studi Gregoriani volume 9 (1972), pages 79-114, reprinted in his Popes, Monks and Crusaders, London, 1984, chapter IX, ‘Lanfranc, the Papacy, and the See of Canterbury’, in Lanfranco di Pavia e l’Europa del secolo XI nel IX centenario della morte (1089-1989), edited G. d’Onofrio, Italia sacra: studi e documenti di storia ecclesiastica 51, Rome, 1993, pages 439-500, reprinted in H. E. J. Cowdrey, Popes and Church Reform in the Eleventh Century, Variorum Collected Studies, Aldershot, 2000, chapter X and his Pope Gregory VII, Oxford, 1998. On Lanfranc, see the contrasting biographies by M. T. Gibson, Lanfranc of Bec, Oxford, 1978 and H. E. J. Cowdrey Lanfranc, Oxford 2003. H. E. J. Cowdrey, ‘The Enigma of Archbishop Lanfranc’, Haskins Society Journal volume 6 (1994), pages 129-52; reprinted in H. E. J. Cowdrey, Popes and Church Reform in the Eleventh Century, Variorum Collected Studies, Aldershot, 2000 chapter XI is also useful.

On the impact of the Normans on monasticism in England see, David Knowles, The Monastic Order in England, 940-1216, 2nd edition, Cambridge, 1963 and J.E. Burton, Monastic and Religious Orders in Britain, 1000-1300, Cambridge, 1994. Useful articles include: H. R. Loyn, ‘Abbots of English Monasteries in the Period following the Norman Conquest’, in Bates and Curry, England and Normandy, pages 95-103; M. Chibnall, ‘Monastic Foundations in England and Normandy, 1066-1189’, in Bates and Curry, England and Normandy, pages 37-49; and D. Matthew, The Norman Monasteries and their English Possessions, Oxford, 1962. On patronage E. Cownie, ‘The Normans as Patrons of English Religious Houses, 1066-1135’, Anglo-Norman Studies, volume 18 (1996), pages 47-62 and Religious Patronage in Anglo-Norman England, Woodbridge, 1998 contains the most important recent work but see also, C. N. L. Brooke, ‘Princes and Kings as Patrons of Monasteries: Normandy and England, 1066-1135’, in C. N. L. Brooke Churches and Churchmen in Medieval Europe, London, 2000, pages 139-57.

 
Art and Architecture

G. Zarnecki, J. Holt and T. Holland, English Romanesque Art, 1066-1200: Hayward Gallery, London 5 April-8 July 1984, London, 1984 is an excellent introduction. K. J. Conant Carolingian and Romanesque Architecture 800-1200, Penguin, 1957 takes a longer view. C. N. L. Brooke, ‘The Normans as Cathedral Builders’, in R. Willis, (ed.), The Architectural History of Winchester Cathedral, Winchester, 1980, reprinted in Brooke, Churches and Churchmen, London, 2000, pages 175-93; and, E. C. Fernie, ‘Architecture and the Effects of the Norman Conquest’, in Bates and Curry, England and Normandy, pages 105-16 and ‘The Effect of the Conquest on Norman Architectural Patronage’, Anglo-Norman Studies, volume 9 (1986), pages 71-85 look at the impact of the Conquest on architecture.

The impact of the Normans as castle-builders is best explored in R.A. Brown, Castles from the Air, Cambridge, 1989 and Castles, Aylesbury, 1985, Colin Platt, The Castle in England and Wales, New York, 1982; N. J. G. Pounds, The Medieval Castle in England and Wales: A Social and Poitical History, Cambridge, 1990; and, A. J. Taylor, Studies in Castles and Castle-Building, London, 1985.

 
The Normans and the Celtic Peoples of the British Isles

R. R. Davies, Domination and Conquest: The Experience of Ireland, Scotland and Wales, 1100-1300, Cambridge, 1990 is an excellent analysis of the broader impact of the Norman invasion. On Scotland see, A. Barrell, Medieval Scotland, Cambridge, 2000; G. W. S. Barrow, The Anglo-Norman Era in Scottish History, Oxford, 1980 and The Kingdom of the Scots, 2nd ed., Edinburgh, 2003; A. Duncan, Scotland: the Making of a Kingdom, The Edinburgh History of Scotland 1, Edinburgh, 1975, pages 117-32; R. L. G. Ritchie, The Normans in Scotland, Edinburgh, 1954 and Keith Stringer, Earl David of Huntingdon, 1152-1219: A Sudy in Anglo-Scottish History, Edinburgh, 1985. On Wales, see R. R. Davies, The Age of Conquest: Wales, 1063-1415, Oxford, 2000 and D. Walker, Medieval Wales, Cambridge, 1990, pages 20-43.

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