Editor David Herlihy gives examples of the principal types of documents that historians use in their investigations of feudal society. These include not only laws and legal commentaries, private charters and administrative records, but also selections from chronicles, saints' lives, sermons, liturgical works, and imaginative literature. Together these diverse sources illustrate in concrete and human terms the relationships between men and women, governments and their people, which were at the heart of the feudal system. Most of the documents have been newly translated.

The conflict between landlords and peasants over the appropriation of the surplus product of the peasant holding was a prime mover in the evolution of medieval society. In this collection of essays Rodney Hilton looks at the economic context within which these conflicts took place. He seeks to explain the considerable variations in the size, composition and management of landed estates and investigates the nature of medieval urbanisation, a consequence of the development of both local commodity production and long distance trade in luxury goods. By setting the broader economic context – the nature of the peasant and landlord economies and the commercialisation of peasant production – Hilton's essays enable a thorough understanding of the relationship between landlords and peasants in medieval society.

Gives a clear and concise account of the feudal system, from its origin and growth to its decay. Also covers the principles of feudal tenure, chivalry, the military life of the nobility, and the workings of the feudal government.

Annotation. Feudal Society discusses the economic and social conditions in which feudalism developed providing a deep understanding of the processes at work in medieval Europe.