Lords and Peasants in a Changing Society: The Estates of the Bishopric of Worcester, 680-1540

by Christopher Dyer

Lords and Peasants in a Changing Society is a history of the large Church estate of Worcester from its foundation until the Reformation, and is a full-length study of an estate centred in the West Midlands. The medieval bishops of Worcester were landed magnates with manors scattered over three counties, from the outskirts of Bristol to north Worcestershire. This study uses the plentiful records of the bishopric to define and explain long-term social and economic changes in this section of the medieval countryside. Attention is divided equally between the economy of the lords and developments among the peasantry of the estate. In dealing with the lords, consideration is given to the political and social pressures that led to the increase and subsequent loss of land in the estate during the early Middle Ages; the formulation of management policies, particularly in the difficult years after the setbacks of the fourteenth century; and the relationship between income and expenditure.

441 pages, Hardcover

First published October 31, 1980

About the author

Christopher Charles Dyer CBE FBA (born 1944) is Leverhulme Emeritus Professor of Regional and Local History and director of the Centre for English Local History at the University of Leicester. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2008 Birthday Honours.

Dyer is well known as the historian of everyday life, a recurring theme in his publications. Dyer looks at the economic and social history of medieval life, with an emphasis on the English Midlands from the Saxon period through to the 16th century. He was invited to deliver the Ford Lectures in the University of Oxford in a lecture series entitled 'An Age of Transition? Economy and Society in England in the Later Middle Ages'.