The English Nobility under Edward the Confessor (Oxford Historical Monographs) [Hardcover]

Peter A. Clarke (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 30, 1994 | ISBN-10: 0198204426 | ISBN-13: 978-0198204428

In this, the first comprehensive analysis of the lay landholders recorded in Domesday Book, Peter A. Clarke examines not only the great earls but also the lesser lords with significant holdings, and the complex network of relationships based on land. Clarke makes full use of Doomsday and all other available evidence, such as chronicles and charters, and skillfully builds a detailed and convincing picture of landholding and lordship in eleventh-century England. He assesses the impact of the Norman Conquest, contrasting conditions under Edward the Confessor with those of the Norman regime. Clarke's work marks a significant advance in knowledge and understanding of medieval England, and its extensive and detailed appendices of landholders and their estates will form an invaluable reference resource.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (June 30, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0198204426
• ISBN-13: 978-0198204428
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,663,761 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended for the early British feudal aristocracy, July 30, 2005

By 

Michael K. Smith (South Louisiana) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The English Nobility under Edward the Confessor (Oxford Historical Monographs) (Hardcover)

There's a tendency to look for contrast to the closely-held authority of the Norman rulers of England after 1066 by imagining the late Anglo-Saxon kingdom to have been a semi-democratic one of smallholders. But this is very far from the case. As Clarke shows, all the earls under Edward came from just four families: Godwine and his wife and sons (including Harold, defeated at Hastings), Leofric of Mercia and his wife and sons and grandsons (the latter becoming earls of Mercia and Northumbria, Siward of Northumbria, and Ralph of Hereford, a nephew of King Edward). Actually, I hadn't been aware the wives of the earls owned such extensive holdings in their own names, which may say something about the difference between Anglo-Saxon proto-feudalism and the Norman variety. The extent of the Godwine estate was nearly twice that of the other three families added together, and in fact was only slightly smaller than the king's estates. Obviously, when Harold II went off to fight the invading Duke William, it was, in part, as the largest single landowner in England. The following close analysis of the sub-earl class of landholders is drawn almost entirely from Domesday Book, the single source without the survival of which we would have no picture of the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy at all. This volume being a reworking of Clarke's thesis at Oxford (which accounts for the slightly pompous style at times), about half the entire text consists of tables enumerating in great detail the lands assigned to the earls under King Edward and likewise the makeup of the "non-earlish" estates. A certain amount of lineage may be deduced from these. There is also a very good bibliography.