Land, law, and lordship in Anglo-Norman England1994

This is an important new interpretation of the development of land law in England during the century after the Norman Conquest. Norman society was based upon land and lordship, and the relative power of lord and vassal was crucial to the control of land. 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. He traces the increasing sophistication of law and the changes in royal control of justice, and offers a significant reassessment of legal developments in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.