ABSTRACT

Multiple lordship – holding land or owing allegiance to more than one lord simultaneously – has generally been regarded as a marginal practice in post-Conquest England, caused by the supposed breakdown of the seigneurial honour in the late twelfth century. This article overturns these assumptions with the results of a groundbreaking statistical study of 194 knightly families from Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Staffordshire, 1066–c.1216. The process of reconstruction and selection of these case studies is discussed. Even on a conservative analysis, 33 per cent of these knights had allegiances to multiple lords by c.1216. The proportion of multiple tenants, moreover, remains roughly stable over time, suggesting that this is a normal part of society and not the result of honorial erosion. These findings call for a revision of the way in which we conceptualise local political society, and the nature of the relationship between a lord and his tenants.

摘要

在十二世纪后期，假想的绅士荣誉遭到破坏，在征服后的英格兰，多君主制（持有土地或同时效忠一个以上的君主）通常被认为是一种边际实践。本文通过对莱斯特郡，德比郡和斯塔福德郡的194个骑士家庭进行的开创性统计研究得出的结果推翻了这些假设，1066– c .1216。讨论了这些案例研究的重建和选择过程。即使在一个保守的分析，33％的这些骑士的百分之不得不忠诚由多个首领Ç.1216。此外，随着时间的推移，多个租户的比例大致保持稳定，这表明这是社会的正常组成部分，而不是名誉侵蚀的结果。这些发现要求修订我们对地方政治社会概念化的方式，以及主人与其房客之间关系的性质。