Law, laity and solidarities

The primary focus of this collection by leading medieval historians is the laity, in particular the ideas and ideals of lay people. The contributors explore lay attitudes as expressed in legal cases, charters, chronicles and collective activities. Highlights the centrality of kinship, whilst stressing its limitations as an all purpose social bond. Ranges chronologically and geographically from the seventh century to the eve of the Reformation, from Western Britain to papal and urban Italy, from Carolingian dynastic politics to the decline of medieval pilgrimage in the sixteenth century, and from the courts of twelfth-century France to the fifteenth-century wards of London.

The primary focus of this collection by leading medieval historians is the laity, in particular the ideas and ideals of lay people. The contributors explore lay attitudes as expressed in legal cases, charters, chronicles and collective activities. Highlights the centrality of kinship, whilst stressing its limitations as an all purpose social bond. Ranges chronologically and geographically from the seventh century to the eve of the Reformation, from Western Britain to papal and urban Italy, from Carolingian dynastic politics to the decline of medieval pilgrimage in the sixteenth century, and from the courts of twelfth-century France to the fifteenth-century wards of London.

Introduction1. Writing about Charles Martel - Paul Fouracre2. Peers in the early middle ages - Janet L. Nelson3. Stepmothers in Frankish legal life - Brigitte Kasten4. Political ideas in late tenth-century England: Charters as evidence - Pauline Stafford5. Medieval mentalities and primative legal practice - Michael Clanchy6. The problem of treason: the trial of Daire le Roux - Stephen D. White7. Between law and politics: Thr judicial duel under the Angevin kings - Jane Martindale8. Local custon in early common law - Paul Brand9. 'Slaves of the Normans'? Gerald de Barri and regnal solidarity in early thirteenth-century England - John Gillingham10. Kinsmen, neighbours and communities in Wales and the Western British Isles, c.1100–c.1400 - Rees Davies11. Lay kinship solidarity and Papal law - David d'Avray12. Laity, laicicization and Philip the Fair of France - Elizabeth R. Brown13. Lay solidarities: The wards of medieval London - Caroline Barron14. Language, laughter and lay solidarities: and inquiry into the decline of pilgrimage and crusading - Charles T. Wood15. Lay/Clerical distinctions in Early India - Romila TharparA bibliography of Susan Reynold's workIndex