Life on the English Manor: A Study of Peasant Conditions 1150–1400 (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought: Fourth Series)

Mr. Bennett gives a picture of the daily and yearly round of the English peasant in the Middle Ages. he explains the feudal system which linked the poor man to the soil and to the service of the lord and the church in a pattern of customary dues and rights, payments, labours and small privileges. He also gives lively detail of the pattern of medieval country life; the influence of the seasons and the state of contemporary knowledge on the work of the fields; the place of religion in everyday life; the workings of feudal justice; popular attitudes to the social structure; the business of getting a living. Since all the inhabitants of England outside the few large towns were essentially countrymen, Mr. Bennett's book is really an introduction to live in Medieval England as a whole.