The English Manor c.1200 To c.1500

by Mark Bailey (Translator)

Provides a comprehensive introduction and essential guide to one of the most important institutions in medieval England and to its substantial archive. This is the first book to offer a detailed explanation of the form, structure and evolution of the manor and its records. Offers translations of, and commentaries upon, each category of document to illustrate their main features. Examples of each category of record are provided in translation, followed by shorter extracts selected to illustrate interesting, commonly occurring, or complex features. A valuable source of reference for undergraduates wishing to understand the sources which underpin the majority of research on the medieval economy and society.

Genres: History, British Literature

272 pages, Paperback

First published June 27, 2002

About the author

Previously, Senior Visiting Lecturer at the University of Leeds and Headmaster of The Grammar School at Leeds.

Currently High Master of St Paul's School, and Professor of Later Medieval History at the University of East Anglia. He has published extensively on the economic and social history of England between c.1200 and c.1500, including Medieval Suffolk

Reviews

[Robert Monk · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of translated documents from medieval English manors, and the manor system, was quite fascinating. The editor did a fine job of writing introductions to the period and place, and of orienting us to the specific documents he presented. That said, I don't know if this is the place to start an exploration of this particular social and economic system. I went into it having already read Maitland's History of English Law and Domesday Book and Beyond (both wonderful, despite being over a hundred years old, by the way) so I wasn't a total neophyte. I nonetheless found myself poring the internet for some additional help as I made my way through, however.

That said, there is a lot of fascinating stuff in here, from the broadly general to the delightfully specific. (There are two suits against people whose dogs were "sheep worriers," for instance.) Probably interesting as legal history, but I read this as social history and got a lot out of it.