Life on the English Manor: A Study of Peasant Conditions 1150-1400 Book

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.