John Hudson exploits a wealth of surviving charter and chronicle evidence in this scholarly analysis. His approach integrates social, political, administrative, and intellectual history. Dr Hudson examines the uses to which lords and vassals put their lands, the relationships between them, and the constraints upon them.

This electronic version has been made available under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND) open access license. The first major work on noblewomen in the twelfth century and Normandy, and of the ways in which they exercised power. Offers an important reconceptualisation of women’s role in aristocratic society and suggests new ways of looking at lordship and the ruling elite in the high middle ages. Considers a wide range of literary sources such as chronicles, charters, seals and governmental records to draw out a detailed picture of noblewomen in the twelfth-century Anglo-Norman realm. Asserts the importance of the life-cycle in determining the power of aristocratic women. Demonstrates that the influence of gender on lordship was profound, complex and varied.

First study of the origins of the lordship courts that dominated the lives of the peasantry of medieval England. About the year 1000, hundreds and shires were the dominant and probably the only local assemblies for doing legal and other business in England. However, this simple pattern did not last long, for lords established separate courts which allowed them to manage and discipline their dependents without external interference, and therefore to intensify and redefine their claims over their dependents. These can be seen clearly by the early twelfth century, and were the basis from which the later manorial courts, courts leet and honour courts originated. The appearance of these courts has long been recognised; what is novel about this book is that it shows how they came into being. It argues that lordship courts ultimately originated through subtracting business from the public courts of Anglo-Saxon England, not from the rights inherent in land ownership. It also shows how and when royal justices appeared for the first time as a response to these changes, and how the earliest generation of judges differed from their successors in their roles and functions, which has considerable consequences for how we understand the changing roles of justices in shaping English law. Overall, the changing pattern of assemblies and courts helped to redefine lordship, peasant status and royal authority, and to expectations about how business should be transacted, with widespread implications across Anglo-Norman society, culture and politics

Fully revised and updated, this classic text provides the authoritative introduction to the history of the English common law. The book traces the development of the principal features of English legal institutions and doctrines from Anglo-Saxon times to the present and, combined with Baker and Milsom's Sources of Legal History, offers invaluable insights into the development of the common law of persons, obligations, and property. It is an essential reference point for all lawyers, historians and students seeking to understand the evolution of English law over a millennium. The book provides an introduction to the main characteristics, institutions, and doctrines of English law over the longer term - particularly the evolution of the common law before the extensive statutory changes and regulatory regimes of the last two centuries. It explores how legal change was brought about in the common law and how judges and lawyers managed to square evolution with respect for inherited wisdom.

First comprehensive survey of how kinship rules were discussed and applied in medieval England. Two separate legal jurisdictions concerned with family relations held sway in England during the high middle ages: canon law and common law. In thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Europe, kinship rules dominated the lives of laymenand laywomen. They determined whom they might marry (decided in the canon law courts) and they determined from whom they might inherit (decided in the common law courts). This book seeks to uncover the association between the two, exploring the ways in which the two legal systems shared ideas about family relationship, where the one jurisdiction - the common law - was concerned about ties of consanguinity and where the other - canon law - was concerned toadd to the kinship mix ties of affinity. It also demonstrates how the theories of kinship were practically applied in the courtrooms of medieval England. SAM WORBY is a civil servant and independent scholar.

An important set of historical essays on England and Normandy from the tenth to the thirteenth century.

"The Oxford History of the Laws of England" provides a detailed survey of the development of English law and its institutions from the earliest times until the twentieth century, drawing heavily upon recent research using unpublished materials.