All too often the medieval social past has been explored as an adjunct to high politics. The subject of this study is ordinary men and women, for whom the politics of the manor, the vill, or the borough were often far more real and pressing. It engages with questions relating to the various structures of society, be they social hierarchy, household, family, parish or manor, lay or clergy. It also considers the ways in which age, gender, and marital status shaped people's lives.
Introduction; The family; Counting heads; The land; Trade and manufacture; The church; The regulation of society; The aristocracy; Learning and literature
