Society

Three works, now regarded as classics, serve as introductions to central medieval society: M. Bloch, Feudal Society, trans. L. A. Manyon (London, 1961; first published 1939-40); J. Le Goff, Medieval Civilization, trans. J. Barrow (Oxford, and Cambridge, MA, 1988); and

R.  Fossier, La Societe medievale (Paris, 1991). For the nobility, in addition to the articles of Georges Duby, The Chivalrous Society, trans. Cynthia Postan (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1977), see D. Crouch, The Image of Aristocracy in Britain, 1000-1300 (London, 1992); M. Aurell, La Noblesse en Occident (Ve-XVe siecle) (Paris, 1996); A. Duggan (ed.), Nobles and Nobility in Medieval Europe, (Woodbridge, 2000);

S.  Barton, The Aristocracy in Twelfth-Century Leon and Castile (Cambridge, 1997); J. Green, The Aristocracy of Norman England (Cambridge, 1997); and J. B. Freed, ‘Reflections on the Medieval German Nobility’, American Historical Review, 91 (1986), 553-75. For noblewomen, see T. Evergates (ed.), Aristocratic Women in Medieval France (Philadelphia, 2001), and S. Johns, Noblewomen, Aristocracy, and Power in the Twelfth-Century Anglo-Norman Realm (Manchester, 2003).

For medieval social structures, see G. Duby, The Three Orders: Feudal Society Imagined, trans. A. Goldhammer (Chicago, 1980); S. Reynolds, Fiefs and Vassals: The Medieval Evidence Reinterpreted (Oxford, 1994); and N. Fryde, P. Monnet, and G. Oexle (eds.), Presence du feodalisme et present de la feodalite (Gottingen, 2002). Thomas N. Bisson, ‘La Terre et les hommes: A Programme Fulfilled?’, French History, 14 (2000), 322-45, provides a useful overview and list of regional studies of French and Mediterranean society. The numerous studies of knighthood include J. Flori, Chevaliers et chevalerie au Moyen Age (Paris, 1998); B. Arnold, German Knighthood, 1050-1300 (Oxford, 1985); and C. B. Bouchard, Strong of Body, Brave and Noble: Chivalry and Society in Medieval France (Ithaca, NY, 1998); those about warfare include R. C. Smail, Crusading Warfare 1097-1193 (Cambridge, 1956); Matthew Strickland (ed.), Anglo-Norman Warfare (Woodbridge, 1992); John France, Western Warfare in the Age of the Crusades 1000-1300 (Ithaca, NY, 1999); Richard W. Kaeuper, Chivalry and Violence in Medieval Europe (Oxford, 1999); M. Keen (ed.), Medieval Warfare: A History (Oxford, 1999); and A. Forey, The Military Orders (Basingstoke, 1992). Amongst the many works concerning medieval castles, the most comprehensive is C. L. H. Coulson, Castles in Medieval Society: Fortresses in England, France, and Ireland in the Central Middle Ages (Oxford, 2003); see also M. Bur (ed.), La Maison forte au Moyen Age (Paris, 1986), and A. Debord, Aristocratie etpouvoir: Le Role du chateau dans la France medievale (Paris, 2000). See also M. Keen, Chivalry (New Haven, 1984); M. Strickland, War and Chivalry: The Conduct and Perception of War in England and Normandy, 1066-1217 (Cambridge, 1996); Joachim Bumke, Courtly Culture: Literature and Society in the High Middle Ages (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1991); and C. Stephen Jaeger, The Origins of Courtliness (Philadelphia, 1985).

The numerous studies concerning aristocratic kinship include M. Aurell, ‘La Parente en l’an mil’, Cahiers de Civilisation Medievale, 43 (2000), 125-42; K. S. B. Keats-Rohan (ed.), Family Trees and the Roots of Politics (Woodbridge, 1997); and C. B. Bouchard, ‘Those of My Blood’: Constructing noble Families in Medieval Francia (Philadelphia, 2000). For naming patterns, see G. Beech et al. (eds.), Personal Names Studies of Medieval Europe: Social Identity and Familial Structures (Kalamazoo, MI, 2002); for the social significance of clothing, see F. Piponnier and P. Manne, Se vetir au Moyen Age (Paris, 1995). For childhood, see D. Alexandre-Bidon and D. Lett, Les Enfants au Moyen Age (Paris, 1997); studies concerning marriage include G. Duby, The Knight, the Lady, and the Priest, trans. B. Bray (London, 1984), and C. Brooke, The Medieval Idea of Marriage (Oxford, 1989).

Recent collective works concerning urban oligarchies include Le Marchand au Moyen Age (Paris, 1992); Les Elites urbaines au Moyen Age (Paris and Rome, 1997); and J. Aurell (ed.), El Mediterrdneo medieval y renacentista, espacio de mercados y culturas (Pamplona, 2002) (see also the recommendations for the Economy below); ecclesiastical attitudes to mercantile wealth are discussed in J. Baldwin, Masters, Princes and Merchants: The Social Views of Peter the Chanter and his Circle (Princeton, 1970), and R. De Roover, San Bernardino de Siena and Sant’Antonino of Florence, the Two Great Economic Thinkers of the Middle Ages (Cambridge, MA, 1967). For the peasantry, there are several classics from British historiography: E. Miller and J. Hatcher, Medieval England: Rural Society and Economic Change, 1066-1348 (London, 1978); H. E. Hallam, Rural England, 1066-1272 (Brighton, 1980); and P. R. Hyams, King, Lord, and Peasants in Medieval England (Oxford, 1980); more recent works include R. Fossier, Peasant Life in the Medieval West, trans. J. Vale (Oxford, 1988); W. Rosener, Peasants in the Middle Ages, trans. A. Stutzer (Cambridge, 1992); P. Freedman, Images of the Medieval Peasant (Stanford, 1999); R. Faith, The English Peasantry and the Growth of Lordship (Leicester, 1997); M. Bourin and P. Freedman (eds.), La Servitude dans les pays de la Mediterranee occidentale chretienne au Xlle siecle et au-deld (Rome, 2000); and

A. Champagne, L’Artisanat rural en Poitou au Moyen Age (Rennes, forthcoming). For the poor and those at the margins of society, see D. Flood (ed.), Poverty in the Middle Ages (London, 1975), and M. Mollat, Les Pauvres au Moyen Age (Paris, 1978).