Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T04:40:00.128Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Conclusion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 February 2024

Hannah Boston
Affiliation:
University of Lincoln
Get access

Summary

This Book's Focus has been on the practice and impact of multiple lordship in twelfth-century England through a study of a region of the north Midlands. Its aim has been to show that multiple lordship was relatively common and was integrated into how contemporaries approached socio-legal relationships. Recognition of the frequency of multiple allegiance brings with it a number of implications for how we should approach twelfth-century society. Some have been addressed in this book; some have fallen outside the scope for this research but would reward further investigation.

As argued in Chapter 1, multiple lordship was widespread from the first generation after the Conquest. Out of 194 minor lordly families identified in sufficient detail for study, around a third of those visible at any one time clearly had land from or other relationships with multiple lords. This is a similar proportion to those families who had only a single lord. The patterns of regional landholding, even in an area containing a mixture of consolidated and scattered lordships, are therefore more common than has previously been recognised. These proportions seem to have remained relatively stable through the twelfth century, demonstrating that multiple lordship in itself was not a symptom or cause of the breakdown of the honour, but a normal part of regional society. Moreover, the study demonstrated that vicinity was important in multiple lordship. Honours which were geographically coherent were more likely to show higher numbers of single lordship. Those lords with scattered lands were more likely to have more multiple tenants.

Chapter 2 explored these patterns in more detail through a series of prosopographical studies of single and multiple tenants. Single tenants seem to have been generally less wealthy and more geographically limited than multiple ones. Nor were they particularly rewarded for their adherence, either with more lands or with positions of trust. Multiple tenants often seemed to have been more prominent: they were generally wealthier and operated over a larger geographical scale. Some families collected land around a single focal point and bolstered their control in a localised region through construction of small fortifications or religious houses. Others seem to have been polyfocal or to have picked up scattered lands wherever they were able, a pattern sometimes seen in connection with royal or seigneurial service. Some multiple tenancies seem to have happened incidentally, by acquisition through marriage or inheritance for instance.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2024

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Conclusion
  • Hannah Boston, University of Lincoln
  • Book: Lordship and Locality in the Long Twelfth Century
  • Online publication: 21 February 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781805431718.007
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Conclusion
  • Hannah Boston, University of Lincoln
  • Book: Lordship and Locality in the Long Twelfth Century
  • Online publication: 21 February 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781805431718.007
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Conclusion
  • Hannah Boston, University of Lincoln
  • Book: Lordship and Locality in the Long Twelfth Century
  • Online publication: 21 February 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781805431718.007
Available formats
×