The Normans: Bibliography -- The Mediterranean

The two volume study by Ferdinand Chalandon La Domination normande en Italie et en Sicilie, Paris, 1904, reprinted, New York, 1969 remains crucial in terms of detail and narrative even if some of its interpretations now need modification. F. Chalandon, ‘The Conquest of South Italy and Sicily by the Normans’, in J. R. Tanner, C. W. Previté, and Z. N. Brooke, (eds.), The Cambridge Medieval History, volume 5, The Contest of Empire and Papacy, Cambridge, 1926, pages 167-83 is a convenient summary of his views. Fortunately Graham Loud The Age of Robert Guiscard: Southern Italy and the Norman Conquest, Longman, 2000 provides an up-to-date English alternative building on his Church and Society in the Norman Principality of Capua, 1058-1197, Oxford, 1985. John Julius Norwich The Normans in the South 1016-1130, London, 1967 is a well written narrative. G. Galasso, ‘Social and Political Developments in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries’, in The Normans in Sicily and Southern Italy, Lincei lectures 1974, British Academy, London, 1977, pages 47-63 is a useful summary of the impact of the Norman invasions. Jean-Marie Martin Italies normandes, Paris 1994 and L.R. Menager Hommes et institutions de l’Italie Normande, London, 1981 are both invaluable studies. Giovanni Tabacco The struggle for power in medieval Italy, Cambridge University Press, 1989 places the Normans in a broader Italian context.

Italian Sources for the Conquest of Southern Italy

Amatus of Montecassino, Storia dei Normanni, edited V. de Bartholomaeis, Fonti per la Storia d’Italia, 76, Rome, 1935. The History of the Normans by Amatus of Montecassino, translated Prescott N. Dunbar, revised by Graham A. Loud, Boydall, 2004 is the only English translation. Geoffrey of Malaterra, De rebus gestis Rogerii Calabriae et Siciliae comitis et Robertis Guiscardi ducis fratris eius, edited E. Pontieri, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores 5 (I), Bologna, 1927-8. An English translation edited by Kenneth B Wolf The Deeds of Count Roger was published by the University of Michigan Press, 2005. Discussion of this work include:  E. Pontieri Goffredo Maleterra, storico del gran conte Ruggero, Tra i Normanni nell’Italia meridionale, Naples, 1964, pages 211-282, S. Tramontana ‘I Normanni di Sicilia: direttrici di ricerca per nuove prospettive di lavoro’, Archivio storico della Sicilia orientale, volume 71, 1975, pages 207-286 and Ruggero il Gran Conte e l’inizio dello stato normanno (Relazioni e communicazioni nelle seconde giornate normanno-sveve, Bari, 1975, edited by Centro di Studi Normanno-Svevi dell’Universita degli Studi di Bari, Rome, 1977, republished Bari, 1991.  William of Apulia, La Geste de Robert Guiscard, edited M. Mathieu, Istituto Siciliano di Studi bisantini e neo-ellinici, Testi e monumenti 4, Palermo, 1961. Kenneth B Wolf Making History: The Normans and their Historians in Eleventh-Century Italy, London, 1995, a valuable but flawed study of the major sources. O. Capitani, ‘Specific Motivations and Continuing Themes in the Norman Chronicles of Southern Italy in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries’, in The Normans in Sicily and Southern Italy, Lincei lectures 1974, British Academy, London, 1977, pages 1-46 is very important.

Byzantine Narrative Sources

Anna Comnena, The Alexiad of the Princess Anna Comnena: Being the History of the Reign of her Father, Alexius I, Emperor of the Romans, 1081-1118 A.D., translated E. A. S. Dawes, London, 1967 is an important source for the Byzantine view of the Normans. Basile Skoulatos Les Personnages Byzantine de l'Alexiade, Louvain 1980 is a detailed prosopographical critique of the Alexiad. There is also a valuable study by Georgina Buckler Anna Comnena: A Study, Oxford University Press, 1928, reprinted Sandpiper, 2000 that contains a great deal on relations between Byzantium and the Normans under Robert Guiscard and his son Bohemond. Useful papers include: J. Howard-Johnston, ‘Anna Comnena and the Alexiad’, in M. Mullet and D. Smythe, (eds.), Alexios I Komnenos, Belfast Byzantine Texts and Translations 4.1, Belfast, 1996, pages 260-302; and, G.A. Loud, ‘Anna Komnena and her Sources for the Normans of Southern Italy’, in I. N. Wood and G. A. Loud, (eds.), Church and Chronicle in the Middle Ages: Essays presented to John Taylor, London, 1991, pages 41-57; reprinted in Loud, Conquerors and Churchmen, chapter 13.

Western Accounts of the First Crusade

R. Hill, edited and translated Gesta Francorum, Nelson’s Medieval Texts, London, 1962 is a source of major significance. Commentaries of value include: K. Wolf, ‘Crusade and Narrative: Bohemond and the Gesta Francorum’, Journal of Medieval History, volume 17 (1991), pages 207-16 and J. France, ‘The Anonymous Gesta Francorum and the Historia qui ceperunt Iherusalem of Raymond of Aquilers and the Historia de Hierosolymitano of Peter of Tudebode: An Analysis of the Textual Relationship between Primary Sources for the First Crusade’, in J. France and W. G. Zajac, (eds.), The Crusades and their Sources: Essays presented to Bernard Hamilton, Great Yarmouth, 1998, pages 39-70. Guibert of Nogent, The Deeds of God through the Franks, translated R. Levine, Woodbridge, 1997.

Arab Perspectives

Jubayr, Ibn, The Travels of Ibn Jubayr, being the chronicle of a mediaeval Spainish Moor concerning his journey to the Egypt of Saladin, the holy cities of Arabia, Baghdad the City of the Caliphs, the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, and the Norman Kingdom of Sicily, translated R. J. C. Broadhurst, London 1952.

Italy before the Normans

N. Christie, The Lombards, Oxford, 1995 provides a general overview of the Lombard invasions and their impact. It should be read in conjunction with the essays in Cristina La Rocca (ed.) Italy in the Early Middle Ages 476-1000, Oxford, 2002, David Abulafia (ed.) Italy in the Central Middle Ages 1000-1500, Oxford, 2004 and T.S. Brown Early Medieval Italy 600-1216, Longman, 2004.

On the Lombard states in southern Italy see, Barbara Kreutz, Before the Normans: Southern Italy in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries, Philadelphia, 1991 and G. A. Loud, ‘Southern Italy in the Tenth Century’, in T. Reuter, (ed.), The New Cambridge Medieval History, volume 3, c.900-c.1024, Cambridge, 1999, pages 624-45. There are also the following case studies that span both the Lombard and Norman periods: Jean-Marie Martin La Pouille du VI et XII siecle, Rome 1993, Patricia Skinner, Family Power in Southern Italy: The Duchy of Gaeta and its Neighbours, 850-1139, Cambridge, 1995 and Huguette Taviani-Carozzi La Principaute Lombarde de Salerne, two volumes, Rome 1991.

Jules Gay L’Italie meridionale et l’Empire Byzantine, Paris, 1904 remains the most useful study on Byzantium and Italy. G. A. Loud, ‘Byzantine Italy and the Normans’, in J. D. Howard-Johnston, (ed.), Proceedings of XVIII Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, Oxford, 1984, in Byzantinische Forschungen, volume 13 (1988), pages 215-33 and reprinted in Loud, Conquerors and Churchmen, chapter 3 gives a more recent view.

Two studies of Muslim rule in southern Italy of value are: H. Kennedy, ‘Sicily and al-Andalus under Muslim Rule’, in T. Reuter, (ed.), The New Cambridge Medieval History, volume 3, c.900-c.1024, Cambridge, 1999, pages 646-69 and H. C. Krueger, ‘The Italian Cities and the Arabs before 1095’, in K. M. Setton, (ed.), A History of the Crusades, six volumes, 2^nd edition, Madison, 1969-89, volume I, pages 40-53.

The Conquest of Southern Italy and Sicily

Gordon S. Brown The Norman Conquest of Southern Italy and Sicily, London, 2003 is a very recent and readable account of the conquest. Huguette Taviani-Carozzi La terreur du monde, Paris, 1996 is the most accessible biography of Robert Guiscard. P. Bouet and F. Neveux (eds.) Les Normands en Mediterranee, University of Caen, 1994, 2^nd ed., 2002 contains valuable papers on the course of the Norman conquest of southern Italy.  

J. France, ‘The Occasion of the Coming of the Normans to Southern Italy’, Journal of Medieval History, volume 17 (1991), pages 185-205 and E. Joranson, ‘The inception of the career of the Normans in Italy’, Speculum, volume 23 (1948), pages 353-96 consider the arguments for the chronology of the ‘adventus normannorum’. R. Lopez, ‘The Norman Conquest of Sicily’, in K. M. Setton, (ed.), A History of the Crusades, six volumes, 2^nd edition, Madison, 1969-89, volume I, pages 54-67 and D. Waley, ‘Combined Operations in Sicily 1060-78’, Papers of the British School in Rome, volume 22 (1954), pages 118-25 look at the Sicilian conquest. However, Edmund Curtis Roger of Sicily and the Normans of Lower Italy, New York, 1912 remains the most recent biography of the leading Norman conqueror.

There are two valuable papers on the nature of the Norman Conquest: G. A. Loud, ‘How Norman was the Norman Conquest of Southern Italy’, Nottingham Medieval Studies, volume 25 (1980), pages 13-34, reprinted in Loud, Conquerors and Churchmen, chapter 2 and Joanna H. Drell ‘Cultural syncretism and ethnic identity’, Journal of Medieval History, volume 25 (1999), pages 187-302. Joanna H. Drell Kinship and Conquest, Cornell University Press, 2002 examines family strategies in Salerno between 1077 and 1194. G. A. Loud and A. Metcalfe (eds.) The Society of Norman Italy, University of Leiden, 2002 contains several critical papers.

Claude Cahen Le Regime feodal de l’Italie normande, 1940 remains the seminal text on vassalage, military obligation and land tenure while Hiroshi Takayama The Administration of the Norman Kingdom of Sicily, New York, 1993 provides some insight into Norman governance. E. Jamison, ‘The Norman Administration of Apulia and Capua, more especially under Roger II and William I, 1127-66’, Papers of the British School in Rome, volume 6 (1913), pages 211-481 has a little to say on the eleventh century. G. A. Loud, ‘Continuity and Change in Norman Italy: The Campania in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries’, Journal of Medieval History, volume 22 (1996), pages 313-43 is a useful case study.

Giovanni Tabacco ‘Italy in the eleventh century: Northern and central Italy’ and Graham Loud ‘Italy in the eleventh century: Southern Italy’, in David Luscombe, Jonathan Riley-Smith (eds.) The New Cambridge Medieval History Volume 4, c. 1024-c. 1198, Part 2, Cambidge University Press, 2004 provide up-to-date coverage.

The Southern Normans and the Italian Church

On relations with the Papacy, Jean Decarreaux Normands, Papes et Moines, Paris, 1974 is the best general work on the subject. H. E. J. Cowdrey The Age of Abbot Desiderius: Montecassino, the Papacy and the Normans in the Eleventh and Early Twelfth Centuries, Oxford University Press, 1983 is important but see also his Gregory VII, Oxford University Press 1998 and edition of the letters of Gregory VII The Register of Gregory VII, Oxford University Press, 2002. L. T. White, Latin Monasticism in Norman Sicily, Cambridge, Mass., 1938 explores the revival of monasticism in the south. La Vie du Pape Leon IX, edited and translated by Michel Parisse and Monique Goullet, Paris, 1997 is a useful, if hagiographical biography of Leo IX, the loser at Civitate.   There is an English translation in I. S. Robinson (ed.) The Papal Reform of the Eleventh Century, Manchester University Press, 2004.  This volume also includes contemporary biographies of Gregory VII. 

The economy of southern Italy under the Normans

David Abulafia, The Two Italies: Economic Relations between the Norman Kingdom of Sicily and the Northern Communes, Cambridge, 1977 and ‘Southern Italy, Sicily and Sardinia in the Medieval Mediterranean Economy’, in his Commerce and Conquest, chapter 1 explore the central issue of trade. Jean-Marie Martin Italies normandes, Paris 1994 is perhaps the best general study of the economic nature of southern Italy under the Normans.

The First Crusade

Jonathan Riley-Smith, (ed.) The Oxford Illustrated History of the Crusades, Oxford University Press, 1995, is the place to start. A useful bibliography is Aziz S. Atiya, The Crusade: Historiography and Bibliography, London, 1962, reprinted 1976. The best full-scale treatments of the Crusades in English are Steven Runciman, A History of the Crusades, three volumes, London 1951-54, reissued 1987; Kenneth M. Setton (ed.), A History of the Crusades, six volumes, 2^nd ed., New York, 1969-2000, a cooperative work by a number of historians; Carl Erdmann, The Origin of the Idea of Crusade, London, 1977; originally published in German, 1935, a classic in the history of the Crusades; and Christopher Tyerman God’s War: A New History of the Crusades, Allen Lane, 2006. Alternative interpretations to Erdmann are Jonathan Riley-Smith, The First Crusade and the Idea of Crusading, London, 1986 and Louis Riley-Smith and Jonathan Riley-Smith, The Crusades: Idea and Reality, 1095-1274, London, 1981.

The Normans: Bibliography -- Ruling England

A. Williams Kingship and Government in Pre-Conquest England, c. 500-1066, Houndmills, Hampshire, 1999 and H. R. Loyn, The Governance of Anglo-Saxon England 500-1087, London, 1984 provide a valuable Anglo-Saxon context. There are a series of important articles by James Campbell on the vibrancy of the Anglo-Saxon state: ‘Observations on English Government from the Tenth to the Twelfth Century’, reprinted in his, Essays in Anglo-Saxon History, London, 1986, pages 155-70; ‘Some Agents and Agencies of the Late Anglo-Saxon State’, in J. C. Holt, Domesday Studies, Woodbridge, 1987, pages 201-18; ‘The Late Anglo-Saxon State: A Maximum View’, Proceedings of the British Academy volume 87 (1994), pages 39-65; ‘The Significance of the Anglo-Norman State in the Administrative History of Western Europe’, Beihefte der Francia volume 9 (1980), pages 117-34; ‘The United Kingdom of England: The Anglo-Saxon Achievement’, in A. Grant and K. J. Stringer, (eds.), Uniting the Kingdom? The Making of British History, London and New York, 1995, pages 31-47; and, ‘Was it Infancy in England? Some Questions of Comparison’, in M. Jones and M. Vale, (eds), England and her Neighbours, 1066-1453: Essays in Honour of Pierre Chaplais, London, 1989, pages 1-17.

W.L. Warren The Governance of Norman and Angevin England 1086-1272, London, 1987 extends Loyn’s work beyond William I’s reign. Useful articles on the Norman state include: W.L. Warren, W ‘The Myth of Norman Administrative Efficiency’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5^th series, volume 34 (1984), pages 113-32; J. Green ‘The Sheriffs of William the Conqueror’, Anglo-Norman Studies, volume 5 (1983), pages 129-45; C.P. Lewis ‘The Early Earls of Norman England’, Anglo-Norman Studies, volume 13 (1991), pages 207-23; J.F.A. Mason ‘The Barons and their Officials in the Later Eleventh Century’, Anglo-Norman Studies, volume 13 (1991), pages 243-62; and D.M. Palliser ‘Towns and the English State’, in J. R. Maddicott and D. M. Palliser, (eds.), The Medieval State: Essays Presented to James Campbell, London, 2000, pages 127-45.

R. C. van Caenegem The birth of the English common law, Cambridge 1974 is the best introduction to legal developments but needs to be read in relation to F. Pollock & F. W. Maitland The History of English Law, Cambridge University Press, 1895 and John Hudson The Formation of the English Common Law, London, 1996, John Hudson (ed.) The History of English Law: Centenary Essays on ‘Pollock and Maitland’, London, 1996 and Patrick Wormald The Making of English Law: King Alfred to the Twelfth Century, volume 1, Blackwell, 1999. G. W. Keeton, The Norman Conquest and the Common Law, London, 1966 looks specifically at the impact of 1066. S. F. C. Milsom, Historical Foundations of the Common Law, 2^nd edition, London, 1981 and The Legal Framework of English Feudalism, The Maitland Lectures 1972, Cambridge, 1976 are contentious.

The key work on the political structure of the Anglo-Norman realm, which brings out the predicament of families with cross-channel holdings, is J.C. Holt, ‘Politics and property in early medieval England’, Past and Present, volume 57, 1972, reprinted in his Colonial England 1066-1215, Hambledon, 1997, and see the subsequent debate with Edmund King and Stephen White in Past and Present, volume 65, (1974). The politics of the Norman Vexin are explored in J. A. Green, ‘Lords of the Norman Vexin’, in War and Government in the Middle Ages: Essays in Honour of J.O. Prestwich, ed. J. Gillingham and J.C. Holt, Woodbridge, 1984 and see also Green’s ‘Unity and disunity in the Anglo-Norman state’, Historical Review, volume 62, (1989). For a reflective study of one of the major English families with limited holdings in the duchy, see A. Wareham, ‘The motives and politics of the Bigod family, c.1066-1177’, Anglo-Norman Studies, volume 17, 1994. D. Bates, ‘Normandy and England after 1066’, English Historical Review, volume 104, (1989) challenges the view that England and Normandy formed ‘a single political entity’, with rulers wielding in effect royal authority in Normandy and perhaps aspiring to create a formal Anglo-Norman kingdom, a view found in J. le Patourel, The Norman Empire, Oxford, 1976 and C.W. Hollister, Monarchy, Magnates and Institutions in the Anglo-Norman World, Hambleton, 1986, chapter 2. England and Normandy in the Middle Ages, ed. D. Bates and A. Curry (1994) has a series of valuable studies relevant to the relations between England and Normandy under both the Norman and Angevin kings. J.A. Green, The Aristocracy of Norman England, Cambridge, 1997 is a major source for the whole period down to 1154, bearing on all aspects of noble politics and society.

Changing patterns of warfare and politics are discussed in J. Gillingham, ‘1066 and the introduction of chivalry into England’, in his The English in the Twelfth Century and M. Strickland, ‘Slaughter, slavery or ransom: the impact of the Conquest on the conduct of warfare’, in England in the Eleventh Century, ed. C. Hicks, Stamford, 1992 and see also Strickland’s ‘Against the lord’s annointed: aspects of warfare and baronial rebellion in England and Normandy, 1075-1265’ in Law and Government in Medieval England and Normandy. Essays in Honour of Sir James Holt, ed.G. Garnett and J. Hudson, Cambridge, 1994. A seminal article about this period showing, among other things, the importance of mercenaries is J.O. Prestwich, ‘War and finance in the Anglo-Norman state’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5^th series, volume 4, (1954), reprinted in Anglo-Norman Warfare, ed. M. Strickland.

 

The economy

C. Dyer, Making a Living in the Middle Ages: The People of Britain 850-1520, London, 2002 is a major new study and one of the few books to treat Britain as a whole. The most comprehensive survey of the English economy is J.L. Bolton, The Medieval English Economy 1150-1500, 2^nd edition, 1985. General works on the rural economy include J.Z. Titow, English Rural Society 1200-1350, Allen & Unwin, 1969; E. Miller and J. Hatcher, Medieval England. Rural Society and Economic Change 1086-1348, Longman, 1978; and The Agrarian History of England and Wales, volume II: 1042-1350, ed. H.E. Hallam, Cambridge, 1988. An Historical Geography of England and Wales, ed. R.A. Dodgshon and R.A. Butlin, 2^nd edition, 1990, has a chapter by B.M.S. Campbell, ‘People and Land in the Middle Ages’ and there is now also Campbell’s English Seigniorial Agriculure 1250-1450, Cambridge, 2000, where chapter 8 sets out his views on the size of the population. C. Dyer, Standards of Living in the Later Middle Ages: Social Change in England 1200-1520, Cambridge, 1989 has been rightly acclaimed. For towns and commerce see S. Reynolds, An Introduction to the History of English Medieval Towns, Oxford, 1977; E. Miller and J. Hatcher Medieval England. Towns, Commerce and Crafts 1086-1348, Longman, 1995; R.H. Britnell, A Commercialising Economy. England 1086-1300, Cambridge, 1993; A Commercialising Economy: England 1086-1300, ed. R.H. Britnell and B.M.S. Campbell, Manchester, 1995 and The Cambridge Urban History of Britain I: 600-1540, ed. D. M. Palliser, Cambridge, 2000.

 

Feudal Society

Susan Reynolds Fiefs and Vassals: The Medieval Evidence Reinterpreted, Oxford, 1994 is invaluable on the complexities of feudalism as a historical concept and historical reality. J.A. Green, J. A., The Aristocracy of Norman England, Cambridge, 1997 and David Crouch The Image of Aristocracy in Britain 1000-1300, London, 1992 are the best studies of the Anglo-Norman aristocracy. These should be supplemented by articles on specific families, for example: David Crouch ‘Normans and Anglo-Normans: A Divided Aristocracy’, in Bates and Curry, England and Normandy, pages 51-67; R. Fleming ‘The New Wealth, the New Rich and the New Political Style in Late Anglo-Saxon England’, Anglo-Norman Studies, volume 23 (2001), pages 1-22; K. S. B. Keats-Rohan (ed.), Family Trees and the Roots of Politics: The Prosopography of England and France from the Tenth to the Twelfth Century, Woodbridge, 1997; Edmunc King ‘Dispute Settlement in Norman England’, Anglo-Norman Studies, volume 14 (1992), pages 115-30; J. S. Moore, J. S., ‘The Anglo-Norman Family: Size and Structure’, Anglo-Norman Studies, volume 14, (1992), pages 153-96; J. Scammell ‘The Formation of the English Social Structure: Freedom, Knights and Gentry, 1066-1300’, Speculum, volume 68 (1993), pages 591-618; and, A. Wareham ‘The “Feudal Revolution in Eleventh-Century East Anglia’, Anglo-Norman Studies, volume 22, (2000), pages 293-323.

On feudalism, lordship and the economy, see R.A. Brown Origins of English Feudalism, London, 1973 for a useful collection of sources. R. Faith The English Peasantry and the Growth of Lordship, London, 1996, H.E. Hallam Rural England 1066-1348, London, 1981 and R.V. Lennard Rural England, 1086-1135: A Study of Social and Agrarian Conditions, Oxford, 1959 are excellent on rural conditions. Important articles include: C.W. Hollister ‘1066: The Feudal Revolution’, American Historical Review, volume 73 (1968), pages 703-23, reprinted in Hollister, Monarchy, Magnates and Institutions, pages 1-16; J.C. Holt ‘Feudal Society and the Family in Early Medieval England’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5^th series, volume 32 (1982), pages 193-212; volume 33 (1983), pages 193-212; volume 34 (1984), pages 1-25; volume 35 (1985), pages 1-28 and ‘Politics and Property in Early Medieval England’, Past and Present volume 57 (1972), pages 3-52, all reprinted in his Colonial England 1066-1215, Hambledon, 1997; and, J.O. Prestwich ‘Anglo-Norman Feudalism and the Problem of Continuity’, Past and Present, volume 26 (1963), pages 39-57.

On the vexed question of knights and knight service see: Frank Stenton The First Century of English Feudalism, 2^nd ed., Oxford University Press, 1962, an influential but increasingly challenged interpretation; Richard Abels Lordship and Military Obligation in Anglo-Saxon England, Berkeley University Press, 1988 a lucid account of pre-Conquest arrangements and should be seen as complementary to C Warren Hollister Anglo-Saxon Military Institutions, Oxford University Press, 1962 and The Military Organisation of Norman England, Oxford University Press, 1965 Useful articles on the subject include: R.A. Brown, ‘The Status of the Norman Knight’, in J. Gillingham and J. C. Holt (eds.), War and Government in the Middle Ages: Essays in Honour of J. O. Prestwich, Cambridge, 1984, pages 18-32; John Gillingham ‘The Introduction of Knight Service into England’, Anglo-Norman Studies, volume 4 (1982), pages 53-64, 181-7, reprinted with a postscript in Gillingham, The English in the Twelfth Century, pages 187-208; John Gillingham ‘Thegns and Knights in Eleventh-Century England: Who was then the Gentleman?’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 6^th series, volume 5 (1995), pages 129-53, reprinted in Gillingham, The English in the Twelfth Century, pages 163-85; S. Harvey ‘The Knight and the Knight’s Fee in England’, Past and Present, volume 49 (1970), pages 1-43; and, J. C. Holt ‘The Introduction of Knight Service into England’, Anglo-Norman Studies, volume 6 (1984), pages 89-106.

For recent work which, in various ways, questions how far the honour was the cohesive and autonomous institution, the ‘feudal state in miniature’, of Stenton’s picture see D. Crouch, ‘From Stenton to McFarlane: models of society of the twefth and thirteenth centuries’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 6^th series, volume 5, (1995); P. Dalton, Conquest, Anarchy and Lordship: Yorkshire 1066-1154, Cambridge, 1994, chapter 7, ‘the first century of English feudalism’; J. Hudson, Land, Law and Lordship in Anglo-Norman England, Oxford, 1994; and see more generally S. Reynolds, Fiefs and Vassals: The Medieval Evidence Reinterpreted, Oxford, 1994. Complimentary to Stenton’s picture of honourial feudalism are the ideas in S. E. Thorne, ‘English feudalism and estates in land’, Cambridge Law Journal, 1959 and S.F.C. Milsom, The Legal Framework of English Feudalism, Cambridge, 1976. Milsom and Thorne argue that in was only after the assize of mort d’ancestor in 1176 that fees became hereditary and thus that property right and ownership were established. Prior to that (to quote John Hudson’s summary) in a ‘world...where the honour was a “feudal state in miniature”, family succession might be usual, indeed supported by custom, but the lord retained discretion as to whether the lands of the deceased tenant should pass to the heir.’ By contrast Chapters 3 and 4 of Hudson’s, Land, Law and Lordship in Anglo-Norman England show in detail that in many ways the hereditability of land was already well established in the first half of the twelfth century and that the assize of mort d’ancestor only hardened and extended existing ideas and practice. Approaching from a particular angle, P.R.Hyams in ‘Warranty and good lordship in twelfth-century England’, Law and History Review, volume 5, (1987), acutely argues a similar case. The existence of hereditary succession in Norman England is also a theme in J.C. Holt, ‘Politics and property in early medieval England’ in his Colonial England. Milsom’s ideas are most easily approached in the first instance through the explanation and critique by Paul Brand in chapter 9 of his Making of the Common Law, a chapter which also discusses the views advanced in R.C. Palmer, ‘The origins of property in England’, Law and History Review volume 3, (1985).

 

The Church

Frank Barlow, The English Church 1000-1066: A History of the Later Anglo-Saxon Church, 2^nd edition, London and New York, 1979 and The English Church, 1066-1154: A History of the Anglo-Norman Church, London and New York, 1979 remains the best introduction. Henry Loyn The English Church 940-1154, Longman, 2000 is shorter. Andrew Brown Church and Society In England 1000-1500, Palgranve 2003 takes a longer perspective.

C.N.L. and R. Brooke ‘The Bishops of England and Normandy in the Eleventh Century: A Contrast’, in C. N. L. Brooke Churches and Churchmen in Medieval Europe, London, 2000, pages 107-16 is a valuable study but should be read in relation to Pierre Bouet and François Neveux (eds.) Les évêques normands du XI^e siècle, Colloque de Cerisy-la-Salle, 1993, Caen: Université de Caen, 1995 and H. R. Loyn, ‘William’s Bishops: Some Further Thoughts’, Anglo-Norman Studies, volume 10 (1988), pages 223-35. On the relationshiop between England and the Papacy, Z.N. Brooke, English Church and Papacy from the Conquest to the Reign of John, 2^nd edition, Cambridge, 1989 remains invaluable but needs to be supplemented by H. E. J. Cowdrey, ‘Pope Gregory VII and the Anglo-Norman Church and Kingdom’, Studi Gregoriani volume 9 (1972), pages 79-114, reprinted in his Popes, Monks and Crusaders, London, 1984, chapter IX, ‘Lanfranc, the Papacy, and the See of Canterbury’, in Lanfranco di Pavia e l’Europa del secolo XI nel IX centenario della morte (1089-1989), edited G. d’Onofrio, Italia sacra: studi e documenti di storia ecclesiastica 51, Rome, 1993, pages 439-500, reprinted in H. E. J. Cowdrey, Popes and Church Reform in the Eleventh Century, Variorum Collected Studies, Aldershot, 2000, chapter X and his Pope Gregory VII, Oxford, 1998. On Lanfranc, see the contrasting biographies by M. T. Gibson, Lanfranc of Bec, Oxford, 1978 and H. E. J. Cowdrey Lanfranc, Oxford 2003. H. E. J. Cowdrey, ‘The Enigma of Archbishop Lanfranc’, Haskins Society Journal volume 6 (1994), pages 129-52; reprinted in H. E. J. Cowdrey, Popes and Church Reform in the Eleventh Century, Variorum Collected Studies, Aldershot, 2000 chapter XI is also useful.

On the impact of the Normans on monasticism in England see, David Knowles, The Monastic Order in England, 940-1216, 2^nd edition, Cambridge, 1963 and J.E. Burton, Monastic and Religious Orders in Britain, 1000-1300, Cambridge, 1994. Useful articles include: H. R. Loyn, ‘Abbots of English Monasteries in the Period following the Norman Conquest’, in Bates and Curry, England and Normandy, pages 95-103; M. Chibnall, ‘Monastic Foundations in England and Normandy, 1066-1189’, in Bates and Curry, England and Normandy, pages 37-49; and D. Matthew, The Norman Monasteries and their English Possessions, Oxford, 1962. On patronage E. Cownie, ‘The Normans as Patrons of English Religious Houses, 1066-1135’, Anglo-Norman Studies, volume 18 (1996), pages 47-62 and Religious Patronage in Anglo-Norman England, Woodbridge, 1998 contains the most important recent work but see also, C. N. L. Brooke, ‘Princes and Kings as Patrons of Monasteries: Normandy and England, 1066-1135’, in C. N. L. Brooke Churches and Churchmen in Medieval Europe, London, 2000, pages 139-57.

 

Art and Architecture

G. Zarnecki, J. Holt and T. Holland, English Romanesque Art, 1066-1200: Hayward Gallery, London 5 April-8 July 1984, London, 1984 is an excellent introduction. K. J. Conant Carolingian and Romanesque Architecture 800-1200, Penguin, 1957 takes a longer view. C. N. L. Brooke, ‘The Normans as Cathedral Builders’, in R. Willis, (ed.), The Architectural History of Winchester Cathedral, Winchester, 1980, reprinted in Brooke, Churches and Churchmen, London, 2000, pages 175-93; and, E. C. Fernie, ‘Architecture and the Effects of the Norman Conquest’, in Bates and Curry, England and Normandy, pages 105-16 and ‘The Effect of the Conquest on Norman Architectural Patronage’, Anglo-Norman Studies, volume 9 (1986), pages 71-85 look at the impact of the Conquest on architecture.

The impact of the Normans as castle-builders is best explored in R.A. Brown, Castles from the Air, Cambridge, 1989 and Castles, Aylesbury, 1985, Colin Platt, The Castle in England and Wales, New York, 1982; N. J. G. Pounds, The Medieval Castle in England and Wales: A Social and Poitical History, Cambridge, 1990; and, A. J. Taylor, Studies in Castles and Castle-Building, London, 1985.

 

The Normans and the Celtic Peoples of the British Isles

R. R. Davies, Domination and Conquest: The Experience of Ireland, Scotland and Wales, 1100-1300, Cambridge, 1990 is an excellent analysis of the broader impact of the Norman invasion. On Scotland see, A. Barrell, Medieval Scotland, Cambridge, 2000; G. W. S. Barrow, The Anglo-Norman Era in Scottish History, Oxford, 1980 and The Kingdom of the Scots, 2^nd ed., Edinburgh, 2003; A. Duncan, Scotland: the Making of a Kingdom, The Edinburgh History of Scotland 1, Edinburgh, 1975, pages 117-32; R. L. G. Ritchie, The Normans in Scotland, Edinburgh, 1954 and Keith Stringer, Earl David of Huntingdon, 1152-1219: A Sudy in Anglo-Scottish History, Edinburgh, 1985. On Wales, see R. R. Davies, The Age of Conquest: Wales, 1063-1415, Oxford, 2000 and D. Walker, Medieval Wales, Cambridge, 1990, pages 20-43.