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Lordship, State Formation and Local Authority in Late Medieval and Early Modern England

Lordship, State Formation and Local Authority in Late Medieval and Early Modern England
Award-winner
Open Access

Lordship, State Formation and Local Authority in Late Medieval and Early Modern England

Spike Gibbs, Universität Mannheim, Germany
July 2023
Hardback
9781009311830

    Providing a new narrative of how local authority and social structures adapted in response to the decline of lordship and the process of state formation, Spike Gibbs uses manorial officeholding – where officials were chosen from among tenants to help run the lord's manorial estate – as a prism through which to examine political and social change in the late medieval and early modern English village. Drawing on micro-studies of previously untapped archival records, the book spans the medieval/early modern divide to examine changes between 1300 and 1650. In doing so, Gibbs demonstrates the vitality of manorial structures across the medieval and early modern era, the active and willing participation of tenants in these frameworks, and the way this created inequalities within communities. This title is part of the Flip it Open Programme and may also be available Open Access. Check our website Cambridge Core for details.

    • Takes a longue-durée approach which considers the continuities and changes across the medieval and early modern era
    • Presents new evidence by drawing largely from previously untapped archival records across England
    • Contributes significantly to existing historiographical debates

    Awards

    Winner, 2024 Joan Thirsk Memorial Prize, British Agricultural History Society

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    Reviews & endorsements

    'Gibbs's book is a fascinating guide to manorial governance in the Middle Ages and early modern period, and one which suggests numerous avenues for future research by social and administrative historians.' Jonathan McGovern, Journal of British Studies

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    Product details

    July 2023
    Hardback
    9781009311830
    304 pages
    235 × 158 × 21 mm
    0.56kg
    31 b/w illus. 4 maps 11 tables
    Not yet published - available from July 2025

    Table of Contents

    • Introduction
    • 1. The changing role of manorial officers and manor courts
    • 2. Manorial officeholding and selection processes: participation or restriction?
    • 3. Manorial officeholding and unfreedom
    • 4. Manorial officeholding and village governance: misconduct and landscape control
    • 5. State formation I: the parish
    • 6. State formation II: vills, quarter sessions and constables
    • Conclusion
    • Appendix 1: Categorising presentments
    • Appendix 2: Identifying individuals
    • Appendix 3: Population estimates.
      Author
    • Spike Gibbs , Universität Mannheim, Germany

      Spike Gibbs is Junior Professor for the Economic History of the Middle Ages at the University of Mannheim. His writing on manorial officials, felony forfeiture and managing stray animals has been published in journals such as the Journal of British Studies and the English Historical Review. This is his first book.