A Social History of England, 900–1200Julia Crick, Elisabeth van Houts The years between 900 and 1200 saw transformative social change in Europe, including the creation of extensive town-dwelling populations and the proliferation of feudalised elites and bureaucratic monarchies. In England these developments were complicated and accelerated by repeated episodes of invasion, migration and changes of regime. In this book, scholars from disciplines including history, archaeology and literature reflect on the major trends which shaped English society in these years of transition and select key themes which encapsulate the period. The authors explore the landscape of England, its mineral wealth, its towns and rural life, the health, behaviour and obligations of its inhabitants, patterns of spiritual and intellectual life and the polyglot nature of its population and culture. What emerges is an insight into the complexity, diversity and richness of this formative period of English history. |
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Abbey abbot Ælfric Æthelred Æthelstan Alfred Anglo-Norman Anglo-Saxon England Archaeology Archbishop areas bishop boroughs burial Bury St Edmunds Cambridge canons Canterbury castles cathedral centres Chapter Christian Chronicle Church Cnut communities court cult Danelaw Danes Domesday Book Early Medieval ecclesiastical Edward the Confessor eleventh century elite Empress Matilda estates ethnic evidence example Henry historians History Jews King labour land landscape Lapidge late Anglo-Saxon later Latin liturgy living London lords lordship manors manuscript markets marriage Medieval England Middle Ages minster monasteries monastic monks ninth Norman Conquest Normandy Old English Orderic Vitalis Oxford pastoral peasants period population priest records reign religious rites royal rural saints Saxon Scandinavian secular settlement shire social society sources suggests surviving tenth century texts thegn Thomas Becket tion towns trade trans twelfth century urban vernacular Viking villages vols Wessex William of Malmesbury Winchester women Woodbridge Wulfstan Yarnton