What do you think?
Rate this book
Life on the English Manor: A Study of Peasant Conditions 1150-1400
This book gives a picture of the daily and yearly round of the English peasant in the Middle Ages. H. S. Bennett explains the feudal system which linked the poor man to the soil and to the service of his lord and the church in a pattern of customary dues and rights, payments, labours and small privileges. The author gives lively details of the pattern of medieval country the influence of the seasons and the state of contemporary knowledge on the work of the fields; the place of religion in everyday life; the workings of feudal justice; popular attitudes to the social structure; the business of getting a living. Since all the inhabitants of England outside the few large towns were essentially countrymen, this is an introduction to life in medieval England as a whole.
400 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1937
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
March 8, 2023
Įtemptas skaitymėlis, vietomis sunkus dėl žodžių, kuriuos žodynai prieš versdami įspėja, kad tai "archaic", "rarity" ir pan. Bet baisiai įdomus visiems, besidomintiems viduramžiais.
Veikalas pirmą kartą išleistas 1937m. (tokį egzempliorių ir turiu) Kembridže, parašytas literatūros istoriko ir atsidavusio Anglijos viduramžių (ne tik literatūros) eksperto Beneto. Veikalas pražingsniuoja daugelį kasdienio anglų valstiečio gyvenimo aspektų: darbą dvare, skirtumus tarp laisvojo valstiečio ir baudžiauninko, buitį, teisinius reikalus, kaip pvz. paveldėjimo klausimus, mokesčius lordui ir pan., pasaulio suvokimą, raciono galimybes, santykį su bažnyčia, dvaro sistemą, tradicijas ir daugelį kitų temų. Monografija leidžia susipažinti ir bent akies krašteliu pajusti, kaip gyveno paprasti kaimo žmonės gūdžiais viduramžiais.
Literatūros, archyvų ir kitų artefaktų gausa, kuria remiasi autorius šioje knygoje, yra pabrėžtinai įspūdingas šio veikalo teigiamas bruožas.
9,5/10 žirnių košės, retai kuom pagardintos.
Rekomenduoju ne tik istorikams, bet ir visiems besidomintiems viduramžiais.
Veikalas pirmą kartą išleistas 1937m. (tokį egzempliorių ir turiu) Kembridže, parašytas literatūros istoriko ir atsidavusio Anglijos viduramžių (ne tik literatūros) eksperto Beneto. Veikalas pražingsniuoja daugelį kasdienio anglų valstiečio gyvenimo aspektų: darbą dvare, skirtumus tarp laisvojo valstiečio ir baudžiauninko, buitį, teisinius reikalus, kaip pvz. paveldėjimo klausimus, mokesčius lordui ir pan., pasaulio suvokimą, raciono galimybes, santykį su bažnyčia, dvaro sistemą, tradicijas ir daugelį kitų temų. Monografija leidžia susipažinti ir bent akies krašteliu pajusti, kaip gyveno paprasti kaimo žmonės gūdžiais viduramžiais.
Literatūros, archyvų ir kitų artefaktų gausa, kuria remiasi autorius šioje knygoje, yra pabrėžtinai įspūdingas šio veikalo teigiamas bruožas.
9,5/10 žirnių košės, retai kuom pagardintos.
Rekomenduoju ne tik istorikams, bet ir visiems besidomintiems viduramžiais.
February 26, 2017
A fascinating instructive read for students of social history, who don't have an intricate knowledge of the Middle Ages, and who suspect that Game of Thrones might not be the most accurate source - LOL! Especially when you think how many of the Norman landowning families are still firmly entrenched on their untaxed lands!
Interested to read of the peasants' hatred of dovecotes, so perhaps it's a race memory that impels me to rush out to scare off the "fat-arses" when they're gobbling up everything off the bird-table before the little fellers can get to it!
Interested to read of the peasants' hatred of dovecotes, so perhaps it's a race memory that impels me to rush out to scare off the "fat-arses" when they're gobbling up everything off the bird-table before the little fellers can get to it!
September 13, 2016
This is a great book on medieval history. Having been a graduate student in Medieval History, I feel cheated that I did not find this gem until long after my studies. Bennett was writing in an era when scholarship meant something. He dug into the sources and wrote a marvelous book. His writing and mastery of the subject matter make this an exceptional book on the topic. It is not written for all audiences. His level of detail is such that many readers would be bored. However, this is highly recommended for medievalists.
Bennett is a devoted student of G.G. Coulton, the studious critic of the medieval church. In my humble opinion, Bennett exceeds his master. Bennett has a specialty of digging into his sources. As a result, his book is larger than many of Coulton's books who appear to have been written for larger audiences. The two authors have similar writing styles. Both highlight their arguments with an excellent use of primary source material. Bennett goes into more depth and uses more examples. However, the overall works are similar.
Bennett's focus on the English manor takes him to a study of the assize, doom, and related records of a handful of English manors dating to the 12th Century. He is not specific as to which 3-5 manors he is closely studying. It is easy to give the impression that he examined many more manors. However, his gratuitous use of examples on the same manors underscores how few he actually studied. Even though he studied only a small number of detailed records, he extracts a fabulous wealth of knowledge that he bares in his book.
His depiction of law and order on the manors is especially relevant. Using the raw data from the assize records and perhaps manorial court records, he clearly refutes the generic idealized version of peasant society that is often recorded in the literature and the contemporary authors of Medieval England. He shows how manorial administration was often left to the peasants in a more democratic society than is generally accepted. He shows how administrators were elected, appointed, volun-told, and otherwise harangued into their positions even if only temporarily. He shows how administrators, landlords, and peasants all sought to circumvent laws, privileges, customs, and each other.
Bennett really turns the medieval world upside down in this study. Modern historians may criticize him for focusing on just a few primary sources, but the end result is a very detailed study of multiple manors that clearly do not correspond to the popular impression of a manor. His judicious use of examples provides humor and interest in the ways the English peasant sought to take advantage of their lords and vice-versa. This is an excellent book.
Bennett is a devoted student of G.G. Coulton, the studious critic of the medieval church. In my humble opinion, Bennett exceeds his master. Bennett has a specialty of digging into his sources. As a result, his book is larger than many of Coulton's books who appear to have been written for larger audiences. The two authors have similar writing styles. Both highlight their arguments with an excellent use of primary source material. Bennett goes into more depth and uses more examples. However, the overall works are similar.
Bennett's focus on the English manor takes him to a study of the assize, doom, and related records of a handful of English manors dating to the 12th Century. He is not specific as to which 3-5 manors he is closely studying. It is easy to give the impression that he examined many more manors. However, his gratuitous use of examples on the same manors underscores how few he actually studied. Even though he studied only a small number of detailed records, he extracts a fabulous wealth of knowledge that he bares in his book.
His depiction of law and order on the manors is especially relevant. Using the raw data from the assize records and perhaps manorial court records, he clearly refutes the generic idealized version of peasant society that is often recorded in the literature and the contemporary authors of Medieval England. He shows how manorial administration was often left to the peasants in a more democratic society than is generally accepted. He shows how administrators were elected, appointed, volun-told, and otherwise harangued into their positions even if only temporarily. He shows how administrators, landlords, and peasants all sought to circumvent laws, privileges, customs, and each other.
Bennett really turns the medieval world upside down in this study. Modern historians may criticize him for focusing on just a few primary sources, but the end result is a very detailed study of multiple manors that clearly do not correspond to the popular impression of a manor. His judicious use of examples provides humor and interest in the ways the English peasant sought to take advantage of their lords and vice-versa. This is an excellent book.
March 28, 2013
One of the best sources, I have yet found, on the pre-mechanized agricultural year (in a Northern European context). Of course that is not the principle concern of the work. It being a complete study of life under the manorial system for the English peasantry; but, nevertheless, the manorial enterprise was agricultural and thus this work contains a thorough study of the yearly work that preoccupied the villein.
Perhaps the most riveting part of this book is the author’s vision of a couple days in the life of John Wilde that the book opens with. Here, in a fictionalized account, Bennett tells of the haying season, late June, 1320 in the small village of Belcombe. With this the reader is introduced to the daily routine of a common fellow at a crucial moment in the farming year. The account—which only takes up the prologue—sets the tone of the work to come and raises questions which will take chapters to answer.
Perhaps the most riveting part of this book is the author’s vision of a couple days in the life of John Wilde that the book opens with. Here, in a fictionalized account, Bennett tells of the haying season, late June, 1320 in the small village of Belcombe. With this the reader is introduced to the daily routine of a common fellow at a crucial moment in the farming year. The account—which only takes up the prologue—sets the tone of the work to come and raises questions which will take chapters to answer.
January 20, 2025
This book is really old. None of the Latin or French was translated; you should have both those languages. LOL. They did translate some of the Old/Middle English. Go figure.
I'd have given it more stars, but I'm sure that some of it has been proven wrong with additional discoveries in the years since it was written. But it was a good and thorough treatise.
The lives of the common man and woman were miserable. The villein was a slave in all but name. Could not legally leave the land, slave to the land, really, not the lord of the manor. Pay to marry, pay to grind their grain--and only at the the lord's mill. Work his/her (mostly his) own land and then work the lord's acres. Apparently, it changed legally but not much in fact in many European nations until nearly the first World War.
I'd have given it more stars, but I'm sure that some of it has been proven wrong with additional discoveries in the years since it was written. But it was a good and thorough treatise.
The lives of the common man and woman were miserable. The villein was a slave in all but name. Could not legally leave the land, slave to the land, really, not the lord of the manor. Pay to marry, pay to grind their grain--and only at the the lord's mill. Work his/her (mostly his) own land and then work the lord's acres. Apparently, it changed legally but not much in fact in many European nations until nearly the first World War.
November 30, 2020
I read about medieval peasant life during lockdown and a freezing cold miserable spring and a lot of depressing things happen in medieval peasant life but this book explains how it wasn’t all that bad
April 24, 2007
I wish someone had to pay me a tax everytime they breathed. I find this book fascinating, but it's rather dry.
December 12, 2015
Surprisingly engaging for what it covers.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews