This book is rather a risky venture. Most of my research on medieval social and economic history has been agrarian rather than urban, and my recent ventures into urban history have been concerned with small market towns rather than with big cities. Amongst other aims, I have tried in this book to justify the ‘small town’ theme as being an important feature of urban history.

My main purpose, however, has been to consider the role of the town within feudal society, as will, I hope, become clear from chapter 1 onwards. This is a specific theme and, while it has to be considered in the general context of the history of medieval towns, there are many aspects of urban history which will not be dealt with in detail. These include both the general and particular economic developments within towns; the patterns of international and regional trade; the economic relationships between the towns and their rural hinterland; not to speak of urban constitutional and political development. These and other aspects of medieval urban history will, of course, be an important context to my main theme. And, while emphasising the towns' relationships with the feudal social formation, I will attempt to convey some feel for medieval town life.