651130

The Past and Present Society
The 'Feudal Revolution' Author(s): Timothy Reuter and Chris Wickham Source: Past & Present, No. 155 (May, 1997), pp. 177-208 Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of The Past and Present Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/651130 . Accessed: 07/03/2014 02:27
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DEBATE THE 'FEUDAL REVOLUTION'

In number 152 of theJournalfor August 1996 we publishedtwo and StephenD. White) to contributions Barthelemy (by Dominique a Debate on thearticlein issuenumber 142 by T. N. Bissonon 'The a further two "Feudal Revolution"'. We are nowpleased topublish to the Reuter and Chris contributions Debate, Wickham) (by Timothy Bisson. witha Replyto all fourComments byProfessor together
III* shorthand for The 'feudalrevolution' has becomeconventional of a 'centre'able to aroundthemillennium, the disappearance, andtheappropriation bent on local control thelocalities, bythose oftheshelloflegitimate which thisprocess dominance authority in structures leftbehind. The combination of thiswithshifts of and settlement whichwas rather family yieldedencellulement, more thanItalianincastellamento writlarge:at a political and cultural level it meansthe dominance of small-scale forms of with little setoverthem organization very bywayofmoreoverforms of ruleor community.' Discussions of the'feudal arching revolution' stressed at fundamental levelsof originally changes socialand political butT. N. Bisson'sreconsideraorganization, tionunderlines theaccompanying in mentalities, changes especito thesocialroleof violence. The contrast as he allyin relation
* I am grateful to Tessa Webberforcomments on an earlydraft of thisresponse, and to ChrisWickham forseveral discussions oftheissuesand ofmyattempts lengthy to get to gripswiththem. 1The term is that of R. Fossier, Enfancede l'Europe: Xe-XIP sidcles, aspects et sociaux, 2 vols. (Paris, 1982); fora discussion of incastellamento and its economiques to encellulement, see C. J. Wickham,The Mountains and theCity: The relationship TuscanAppennines in theEarlyMiddleAges(Oxford,1986), xxiii-xxvi.Critiques of the idea that encellulement was universalthroughout are Europe or all-embracing offered fromdifferent standpoints by K. Leyser,'The Ascentof Latin Europe', in his Communications and Powerin Medieval Europe: The Carolingian and Ottonian ed. T. Reuter (London, 1994), 218-19; J. Campbell,'Was it Infancy in Centuries, in M. Jonesand M. Vale (eds.), England England?Some Questionsof Comparison', and herNeighbours, 1066-1453: Essaysin Honour ofPierreChaplais(London, 1990).
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it is nota simple one between and violence depicts peace before after themillennium, butbetween an olderviolence whoseprimofpublic order anda newer aryrolewasthemaintaining 'private' violence of castles and their followers. practised by themasters Thiswas 'personal, butinhumane; affective, militant, aggressive, butunconstructive'.2 Unconstructive or not,Bissondepicts lords and their armedgangsas holding likean ideology of something as seen in both the narrative sources of the violence, sparse period and in thelanguage used by charters. was notonlyin Lordship factpredatory, as no doubtit had alwaysbeen and wouldlong but it also consciously saw itself as such.3The 'feudal remain, of earlier discussions herefinds itsfeudal anarchists. anarchy' Bisson'sstress on theideology of lordship is helpful, but his raisestwo setsof problems, one largely presentation conceptual and methodological, one largely and historiographgeographical ical. The first is how we determine the prevalence and social ofviolent behaviour andthereliability andeffectiveness meaning of public order.Bisson'spictureof a new kind of 'affective' violence is rhetorically and anecdotally substantiated, persuasive but it would not be difficult to meet it with counteranecdotes mindless ninthand tenth-century violdocumenting ence.Therewas,after ofthis, andBisson himself all,no shortage someofthematerial. To do this, wouldbe to however, supplies resortto a familiar and tediousway of conducting historical debates:sincethetechnique cannot it produce clinching proofs, noclosure allows that orboredom. except produced byexhaustion To adduce counter-anecdotes is merely to claimthatnothing which is justas much a disguised statistical inferreally changed, encefrom anecdotal evidence as is a claimforchange. to Trying assessa quantitative evidence means problem usingqualitative thatimpressionism and anecdotalism as harddata masquerade of instead of fulfilling their functions within therhetoric proper An all-observing Martianvisitor historical might explanation. know whether violenceincreased fromthe late tenth century could not either but we cannot, and contemporaries onwards, A little introthatthey (though they mayhavethought could).4
2 T. N. Bisson, 'The "Feudal Revolution"', Past and Present, no. 142 (Feb. 1994), 18. lxx (1995). 3See also T. N. Bisson,'Medieval Lordship',Speculum, like thatof Hansshouldmake us suspiciousof statements 4 Such considerations WernerGoetz (quoted approvingly by Bisson, 'Feudal Revolution',22): 'Without troubles . .. at themoment when doubtthePeace of God was a reaction to mounting lordships appeared'.
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less respect mayhelpto drivethispointhome.Is there spection and thejudiciary thanthere oncewas?Arewe forlaw-enforcers Is violence more moreat riskthanformerly? and our property in character, less than it once was - different 'affective' rategoneup? If police Has thecrime restrained bysocialnorms? or makeit appearto havedoneso (or remained statistics steady, better whatdoes thatmean?We are notsignificantly declined), than the aboutourownsocieties suchquestions placedto answer in of our enquiry wereabout theirs, subjects eleventh-century and opinion pseudo-fact spiteof themuchwideraccessto fact, and opinion polls. by masscommunication provided The answerswe do give to these questionswill certainly - primarily, - ourviewofour thansecondarily rather express that we arein this I see no reason to suppose ownsociety. respect inthetenth andeleventh centuries. from ourequivalents different is always tocomplain inother To complain aboutviolence, words, of Merseburg, about the stateof publiclife. When Thietmar do notobey 'ifwe [Saxonbishops] around1017,saidthat writing on as if no kingor in we are the local count all things preyed II's a about ruled over he was us', Henry making point emperor a sociological rulein Saxony at leastas muchas he was offering ofSaxonmagnates.5 since ofthebehaviour Furthermore, analysis II did not rule indeed that (or Henry nobody supposed) supposes to some of its in Saxony,this quotation lead us treat might elsewhere more caution: when west with tenth-century analogues Frankish sources tellus thatthekingwas absentor ineffective, as theysometimes a guideto how do, theyare not necessarily
of Merseburg, Monumenta Chronicon, viii,23 (ed. RobertHoltzmann, 5 Thietmar GermanieHistorica[hereafter rerumgermanicarum MGH], Scriptorum [hereafter SRG], new ser., ix, Berlin,1935, 520). The whole passage is worthquoting:The and since it is enoughfor pride of these lords arouses the furyof theirfollowers, othersto remainas equals in theseregions.If any neighbour these,does not permit should offend howeverexemplary, is unintenionally againstthem,no composition, is too strong to be broken.Their neighbours are flailed adequate,and no settlement by thisscourge,sincetheyallow no one to standup againstthem,whether theyare in theright or not. The bishoprics established in theseregions are severely oppressed findthatwe are allowedto retainour by theirpower,and we, theiradministrators, honourand something of our substanceonly if, contrary to God and justice,we if we do not,however, we are despised,and are complywiththeirwill in all things; set over us'. For an analysis of despoiledas iftherewereno lordas kingor emperor a wide rangeof examplesof thiskindof passagein narrative sources,see T. Reuter, 'Die Unsicherheit aufden Straf3en imeuropiischen und Hochmittelalter: FritihTater, und modernen in J. Fried (ed.), Trdger Opferund ihremittelalterlichen Betrachter', und Instrumentarien des Friedensim frihen und hohenMittelalter (Vortrige und xliii,Sigmaringen, 1996). Forschungen,
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safeit was to walkthestreets at night.6 The tendency to playup disorder if a ruleris absentor feltto be unsatisfactory forone reason or another is characteristic ofhagiographers andhistorians oftheearly andhigh MiddleAges.Henry V ofGermany, Robert Curthose of Normandy and Raymond VII of Toulouseall had to them in contemporary opposition legitimized writing byreference to theirinability to keep the peace.' When a rulerlike Charles theFat of East Franciaor IEthelred II of Englandfails external we willalsofind that accounts ofinternal threats, against disorder his pile up in thepagesof annalistic writings covering inoneareaofruleleadspeopletolookmore failure closely reign;8 andcritically at others, a pattern familiar from theAngloenough Saxonpolities of our own era. The counterpart to thisis praise fortheeffective a bright suncasting ruler, deephistoriographical shadowsin whichmuchcan lie hidden.Examplesof thisare we need onlyconsider thedifference in legion:in our context, tonebetween Radulfus Glaber and Adh6mar ofChabannes. The twowerenearcontemporaries and shared muchsubject matter, but at theheartof Adh6mar's third book lies Duke William of rex and the of such dux, Aquitaine, potius quam depiction figures does notsitwellwithmorethana passing glanceat thedarker side of society.9 Suchjudgements on publicorder, bothpositive and negative, havelonghelpedto disguise theeitatiste prejudices
i.4 (ed. R. Latouche,Classiquesde l'histoire de 6 For example,Richer,Historiae, 'The justiceof kingsand France,xi, 2nd edn, Paris, 1964, 12), or theoften-quoted Mosomense seuLiber monasterii sancti Mariae princeswas asleep', Chronicon fundationis 0. s. B. apudmosomum, ed. withFrenchtrans.M. Bur, Chronique ou livre defondation du monastere de Mouzon(Paris, 1989), 18. ' undEkkehards Chroniken unddieanonyme ed. F.-J.Schmale Frutolfs Kaiserchronik, and I. Schmale-Ott Geschichte des Mittelalters, Quellenzur deutschen (Ausgewahlte Freiherrvom Stein-Gedachtnisausgabe, xv, Darmstadt,1972), 322 (EkkehardIII, s.a. 1116); see also 342, 344, 362 (EkkehardIV, s.a. 1119, 1120, 1123). For Robert and Raymond, see M. Barber,'Catharism and the OccitanNobility:The Lordships of Cabaret, Minerveand Termes',in C. Harper-Bill and R. Harvey(eds.), TheIdeals and Practiceof Medieval Knighthood, Hill iii, Papersfromthe FourthStrawberry 1988 (Woodbridge, Conference, 1990), 11. ' For Charles in theEarly Middle III, see the discussionin T. Reuter,Germany II, see SimonKeynes,'Crime Ages,c.800-1056(London, 1991), 115-21; for Ethelred and Punishment in theReignofEthelred theUnready', in Ian Wood and Niels Lund (eds.), People and Places in Northern Europe,500-1600: Essays in Honourof Peter Hayes Sawyer(Woodbridge, 1991). 'Potius rexquamesse Dux putabatur: SomeObservations Concerning 9 B. S. Bachrach, Ademarof Chabannes' Panegyric on Duke Williamthe Great', HaskinsSoc. Jl, i on (1989). I have not yet been able to consultRichardLandes's new monograph Adhemar.
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from and twentieth-century historians as citations ofnineteenthsources.10 contemporary
frees us toaskwhat To abandon purpose quantification implicit was served served and whatpurpose an actofviolence bycalling doesindeed us todifferentiate. Bisson Thisrequires an actviolent. violbetween do so, buthisdistinction traditional, order-serving blur to me to seems violence castellanic enceandnew,'affective' others and to stress be made need to which some distinctions in one's ownneighbourhood artificially. Beating up thepeasants oftheneighis notthesameas beating or district up themonks the latter one's social not are very likely monastery; only bouring social one has with whom are also ongoing people equals,they to the new classes it rare for was relations. dangerous Actually their more to beat were beat up monks likely up directly; they feuds when weremore conducting likely, justas they dependants, to harass and withneighbouring castle-owners, dependants desIfyour in direct combat. to infrastructure than neighengage troy on travellers then even bourand rivalis exacting tolls, preying resource-base an act directed becomes him,hiseconomic against and pilgrims it no doubtto merchants and his honour(though tell was which did notfeellikethat).We cannot easily primary: the outcomeof continued feuding may have been territorially but thatneed nothavebeen theaim of based 'banal' lordships, ofbothfolklore from thebeginning. The analogy theparticipants in New York or and filmsuggests thatwhenrivalmobs fight thesestruggles taketheform of feud Palermo, characteristically and indeedare legitimized evenif feud, by a code ofconducting are alsoaboutcontrol ofterritory. they of 'law and order'are also madedifficult Discussions by our distinction betweenthe 'civil' and the 'criminal'.To open a witha 'violent'move- burning disputeover property rights - was a common forexample cropsor flogging peasants, early medieval which was notnecessarily treated as a criminal practice in theperiodwe are considering or during thegolden act,either Francia.11 If I were age of publicorderprovided by Carolingian to beginmyprosecution of a claimto Professor Bisson'shouse himor his friends, or by burning downhis fence by assaulting
auf den 1oFor a fullerdiscussionof this point, see Reuter, 'Die Unsicherheit Straf3en'. " W. Davies and P. Fouracre,'Conclusion',in W. Davies and P. Fouracre(eds.), The Settlement in EarlyMedievalEurope(Cambridge, ofDisputes 1986), 234-5.
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and garden at least)be treated shed,thiswould(in theory quite frommy property claimsin modernEuropeanor separately American as a criminal offence legalsystems: against publicorder and as a matter forseparate civildamages, of how a regardless civilcourt claim(andtheadjudicamight adjudicate myproperty tionwouldat leastin principle not be affected by mycriminal NeitherCarolingian courtsnor Carolingian rulers behaviour). wouldhavemadethese distinctions: thereal,yetritualized, violence which the'opening-of-dispute' of the symbolized precisely and post-Carolingian worldmight in Carolingian get a mention theultimate this in whether was recorded settlement, royal placior feudal butit wouldrarely treattum convenientia, getseparate mentor punishment. In fact, we do notknowthatmuchabout how Carolingian courts or law-enforcement dealtwith agencies - homicide, such'affective' or'criminal' violence arson, grievous - as aroseoutside harm thecontext ofproperty orpolitical bodily in other outside thecontext of feud.12 words, disputes: Bissonexplicitly contrasts theregulated of feudwith violence the'new' castellanic to me his ofviolence but new men violence, to be and his of feud, appear practising 'anti-inventory seigneurial from drawn early equallybe read rights' peace legislation might as a handbook forthe conduct of aristocratic feud.13 J. Dhondt andK. -F. Werner outthat theemergence longagopointed during - a process, in the earlytenthcentury of the principalities and think of which we usedto call 'feudal anarchy' incidentally, in thedaysbefore as violently subversive oftheold order; princes - violence andcastellans thenewvillains hadbecome respectable and random, buton thecontrary was byno meansopportunistic withinancientbordersand directedagainst largelyconfined or violence force,warfare opponents againstwhom coercion, ofview)hadsomeshowofjustificauponone'spoint (depending so well placedto showit, but my tion.14We are not normally find that thesamewas trueat ifwe werewe should guessis that Bissonic 'violence' 1000:that or comital levelafter thecastellanic and controlled, not'affective', butquitemeaningful was usually chosen. Notethat inthemeans usedandthetargets both although
by C. J. Wickham,'Rural Society',in R. 12One or two examplesare offered MedievalHistory, McKitterick ii, c.700-c.900 (Cambridge, (ed.), TheNew Cambridge 1995), 533-4. 13Bisson,'Feudal Revolution',18. 14 K.-F. Werner, 'Kingdom and Principality in Twelfth-Century France', in T. Reuter(ed.), TheMedievalNobility 1979), 247-9. (Amsterdam,
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or the to be latrones saidmetaphorically thenewmenareoften fortifications as a basefor their them we do notfind like, using
where it is their and widespread random neighbourhoods, raiding;
and their which are presumably dominate, landed, they they feud. whom with they neighbours both oflegitimacy, A feuding isoneinwhich culture questions are constantly as to endsandmeans, being posed;youcannot ofanyIcelandic sustain feud without it,as a reading sagawill in thelatetenth andearly ofpower exercisers Bisson's show.15 areevidently eleventh by'swelling flourishing, supported century from and ifthese suffer even masses ofarmed horsemen', hunger in lords Yet these status uniquely appear probably anxiety.16 'affective' able to exercise to have been history European which ofthegovernmental legitimized trappings power stripped it either to to without violence it andto practise having justify Bisson's own In fact, we can see from or others. themselves ofRouergue, The count that wereso concerned. material they claimed ofSainte-Foy, ofthemonks account evenin thehostile hispower' somewith whom he 'oppressed from thepeasantry submission' from in his was 'due at least view, which, thing has obvious of the term consuetudo use The them."1 widespread those affected metprecisely which overtones, by legitimatory 'bad' customs. the it Equally legitimacalling things legitimized the ofwhat is the inwhich the names forms) (andoften tory way an earlier order: was claimed mimicked fodrum, Carolingian andso on,might all havebeensubstantially heribannum, gistum, inwest Francia at least, but century, bytheeleventh privatized hadnotsimply andbeenreplaced bya comthey disappeared in different setofexactions needthey (norincidentally pletely for anearlier erahave been lessharsh orexacting really any being in character).'" or notionally Theremayno longer have public in most or a fisc for ofwest beena king anypractical purposes butthepublic order andsetsofpublic institutions so Francia,
15 W. I. Miller,Bloodtaking in Saga Iceland andPeacemaking: Feud,Law and Society is frequently often moral, juridical (Chicago,1990), 179-220,esp. 181: 'The bloodfeud and alwayspolitical';and the discussion of legitimacy, 189 ff. 16Bisson,'Feudal Revolution',18. 17 Libermiraculorum sancte Fidis,ii, 5 (ed. A. Buillet,Paris, 1897, 108), as citedby Bisson,'Feudal Revolution',16, n. 40. " Convenient summaries of theseprocessescan be foundin Jean-Pierre Poly and EricBournazel,TheFeudal Transformation, Caroline 900-1200,trans. Higgit(London, and often extortionate nature of 'public' powersis stressed 1991),25-39; thecoercive by Bisson,'Feudal Revolution',14.
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invoked in thecapitularies ofCharlemagne and Louis eloquently the Pious stillhelpedto legitimize the holders of powerin the whoseclerics indeednow stressed thattheywerethe localities, of kings thatthey equivalents (and did notmeanby thatsimply coulddo as they pleased).19 This should be borne in mindwhenconsidering thepeaceand truce ofGod movement. Bisson whatseemsto me to be presents a very traditional viewofthis, as an alliance between clerics and thehelpless thenewpredators.20 Butthewholeapparatus against ofoaths, crowds andrelics which recent historians havefound so I not aimedat forcing on a was, think, interesting compliance wholeclassofunwilling as Bissonimplies, and would predators, have worked if it had been. the collective oathhardly Rather, offered somedegree ofguarantee tomembers ofthat class takings thatall would be bound,thattherewould be no free-riders of the peace without reapingthe benefits havingto pay the The in a text like the oathof Beauvais penalties. qualifications are nota compromise between and showthe wolves;they sheep in which oaths were held in this To swear respect society. generalized respect forall church forexample, meana buildings, might choice: to with or crimes; imperilallowing wrong-doers getaway and thesoulsofthose whosworetheoaths, lingboththehonour shouldtheybe confronted witha wrong-doer who had taken in a church or a building associated withit. refuge physically Such dilemmas muchconcerned Gerardof Cambrai: a blanket torecover stolen lower prohibition against seeking property might the incidence of feud,but it wouldalso meanan amnesty for armswouldallowwicked wrong-doers, justas a ban on bearing mento flourish in thefuture.21 A similar fortheformal concern observance of oathscan be seenin therepeated use of formulae likemesciente or se sciente which shouldbe seenless (wittingly), as escapeclausesin smallprint forthosewho had no intention of keepingtheiroathsin any case thanas expressions of the serious concern feltby bothclerics and lay magnates aboutthe
butnotuntypical 19A famous exampleis theclaimon behalfof Hugh ofAmpurias in 1019that'thepowerwhichthekingsoncehad therethiscountHugh has', as cited La Catalogne et du milieu du Xe d la findu XI siecle:croissance by PierreBonnassie, mutations d'unsocite',2 vols. (Toulouse, 1975-6), i, 165. 20 Bisson,'Feudal Revolution', 18, 20-1. 21 Gestaepiscoporum Cameracensium, iii, 53 (ed. L. C. Bethmann, MGH, Scriptores in folio,vii, Hanover,1846,487).
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in breaking views risks entailed the oaths.22 Bisson apparently ofweakness,23 butitwasrather ofoaths as a sign newspecificity hadbeen basedoathofloyalty which thenon-specific, morally usein Carolingian devalued The new times.24 byitsinflationary ofoathis probably seenas a first that better style steptowards of political is so characteristic lifewhich of the juridification twelfth Butit is alsoa signthat thedisappearance of century. from ofwest effective intervention Francia royal many regions hadnot thepolitical classes from theneedtoweigh dispensed up andjustify their interms actions ofwider norms. In theabsence ofkings, ofthese wider norms could be many the church. The oath of Beauvais is almost by provided textually identical with twoearlier oaths which tohavebeenpreappear in Burgundian sented to the participants a peace assemblies orsoearlier.25 decade Herewehave oneform ofEuropean public which order survived across the divide ofL'An undoubtedly great it hasbeendistinctly Mil,though neglected byhistorians: episand which found indiocopalsolidarity co-operation expression cesan andprovincial councils andinexchanges ofletters between That such trans-diocesan was bishops.26 co-operation at work here is evident from the textual itspresmoreover, relationships;
22 See n. 25 below and also the textsedited in Constitutiones et acta publica,1: 911-1197 (ed. L. Weiland,MGH, Constitutiones et acta publica,i, Hanover, 1893, no. 419, 597, c.4: 596-617): forexample,'Treuga Dei archidiocecesis Arelatensis', habuerint et se scientibus voluerint 'Qui verotreuvam promissam infringere .. .'; or no. 424, 604, c. 11 of the 1083 Colognepeace, spelling out thatparticipation in court wherecorporal sentences are imposedis not a violation of the peace. In proceedings the text above, I have written'magnates',where Bisson uses the term 'knights' to what ('Feudal Revolution',18), forthosewho wereto swear.Sincethetextsrefer is to be done withoffenders who enterintomeum conductum, theywould seemto be aimed moreat leadersthanat members of war-bands. 24-8. 23 Bisson,'Feudal Revolution', use oftheseoathsin Carolingian succession can be followed politics 2 The repeated in J. Nelson, CharlestheBald (London, 1992), index,s.v. 'oaths'; forcomment, see und J. Nelson, 'The Quest for Peace in a Time of War', in Fried (ed.), Trdger K.-F. Werner, 'ImportantNoble Families in the Kingdom of Instrumentarien; in Reuter(ed.), MedievalNobility, Charlemagne', 180-1; K. Leyser,'Three Historand Powerin MedievalEurope, 25-6. ians', in his Communications see H. Hoffmann, and TreugaDei (Schriften 25 For references, der Gottesfrieden Monumenta Germaniae Historica, xx, Stuttgart, 1964), 47, 51, 56. See ibid.,15-16, foran oathtakenby theobedienciarii of Saint-Julien, Brioude(undated,but probably late tenth or earlyeleventh whichalso has verbaloverlapswiththe century century), oaths. peace-council of Carolingian 26 This is much more thanthe continuation studiedby moralizing E. Magnou-Nortier, 'Les Ev~ques et la paix dans l'espace franc (VIe-XIe siecles)',in de l'dglise a wholerangeofactivities, L'Eviquedansl'histoire 1984); it includes (Angers, some of which can be seen in collectionsof letterslike those of Fulbert and
(cont.onp. 186)
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was approached to join the peace movement precisely by the ofBeauvais of and Soissons, around thetime bishops presumably theoathof Beauvais.27 of shouldnot be seen as the equivalent Episcopalsolidarity modern themselves nuclear-free zones; municipalities declaring thepowerit expressed was respected. The legitimacy possessed needsstressing, becausein their withthe dealings by thechurch church thenew classesshowedjusthow muchtheythemselves in theirrelations with it; the soughtand found legitimacy of the churchwere also its benefactors. This is a despoilers familiar orparadox, ofcourse, butoneofsomesignificance, point classas one comgivenBisson'sviewof thenewpower-holding men nor of who were neither interested in, posed capableof, In of or substance.28 fact,what anything permanence building enough:no soonerdid theybuilt was visibleand traditional and seigneurs comeon the scenethantheybeganto castellans in the preservation of their own memoria, invest just like their in devising were inventive elders and betters.29 Churchmen the of giftto the church new forms (forexample, appropriate to monasteroftithes and parish churches 'return' byaristocrats small to endow(forexample, of institutions ies) and new forms forthosewho and housesof canonsregular priories dependant of minimum housewithitsnormal a full-scale couldnotafford after the twelvemonks).30Thoughit wouldbe over a century
visiblewhenthe canonsof tenthsome of whichwill becomemoreclearly Gerbert, edited. I hope to churchcouncilshave been properly and early eleventh-century elsewhere. at muchgreater to Europeanepiscopality return length 27 Gestaepiscoporum Cameracensium, iii, 27, (ed. Bethman, 474). 28 Bisson,'Feudal Revolution', of Reform 18, 34-42. See J. Howe, 'The Nobility's the MedievalChurch',Amer.Hist. Rev., xcii (1988). 29 On the phenomenonin general, see P. Geary, Phantoms of Remembrance castellans and of gift-giving, showing 1995), 76-80, 177-8; forpatterns (Princeton, activealmostas soon as theyappearon thescene,see D. Poeck, becoming seigneurs Studien,xv (1981); Constance 'Laienbegribnissein Cluny', Friihmittelalterliche in Burgundy, and theChurch Brittain Nobility Bouchard,Sword,Mitre,and Cloister: 980-1198 (Ithaca, 1987), 131-2, 160-9. in of recentscholarship and tithes, see the summary of churches 30 On the return Church G. Tellenbach, The Western Century fromthe Tenthto the Early Twelfth 177-80. It is now Mitreand Cloister, 1993), 286-93; Bouchard,Sword, (Cambridge, were betterplaced to thatthe 'new orders'of the twelfth a commonplace century Western R. W. Southern, customers: fromless wealthy Society exploitendowments Brittain Middle andtheChurch inthe 1970),240-72; Constance Ages(Harmondsworth, Cistercians, Knights,and EconomicExchange in Bouchard, Holy Entrepreneurs:
(cont.onp. 187) (n. 26 cont.)
who relates how Gerard of Cambrai Cameracensium, Pontificum
ence is confirmed authorof the Gesta by the anonymous
187
an ideology of knighthood couldbe saidto millennium before inthe eraofthe'feudal this toobegan have been fully developed, II said 'let those whenUrban nowbecome revolution' itself: soldiers whohave been robbers' hewascompleting Christ's long a process, Theideology abolished the distincnot one.3' initiating thepolitical between theking tionwithin (andthe community who hadprescribed forms hechose toassociate with him), agents ofconduct andduties, whodidnot;all were andtherest, now, intheory, miniature Likethe think-tanks ofourowntime, kings. clerics were tosteer the course ofdebate, eleventh-century trying butthey were alsooffering ideasandinstitutions in response to men of an violence wanted demand.32 Bisson's legitideological imation: this doesnotmake butithelps us to them lessviolent, them as something understand more than merely psychopathic.
The second setofproblems raised in revolution' bythe'feudal itsvarious is and in nature. guises geographical historiographical As all ofus in ourhearts medieval is know, European history French starts in from France, essentially history: everything
needs pushing Twelfth-Century (Ithaca, 1991). Here, too, the chronology Burgundy well back intothe eleventh century. Historia Heideli, 3 (ed. H. Hagenmeyer, Hierosolymitana, 31 Fulcherof Chartres, see G. Althoff, Christi berg,1913), 136. For thepapal rolein thisprocess, 'Nuncfiant extiterunt zur Entstehung von Rittertum und Ritterethos', milites, qui dudum raptores: xxxii (1981); I. S. Robinson,'GregoryVII and the Soldiersof Christ', Saeculum, des History, Iviii (1973); and, of course, Carl Erdmann, Die Entstehung trans. Kreuzzugsgedankens 1935),51-85 [The Origins (Stuttgart, oftheIdea ofCrusade, M. W. Baldwinand W. Goffart (Philadelphia, 1977)]. is also disputed;it has been arguedthatboththetripartite 32 Here the chronology schemata of socialorganization and thechurch's ofweaponsand warriors sponsorship retained their on 'public' office-holders Carolingian emphasis up to theearlyeleventh so allowing thehistory ofmentalities to reflect thefeudal century, mutation/revolution: G. Duby, Les TroisOrdresou l'imaginaire du fiodalisme (Paris, 1978) [The Three Orders: FeudalSociety trans. A. Goldhammer Imagined, (Chicago,1980)]; fortripartitionand blessing, see J.Flori,'Les Origines de l'adoubement Traditio, chevaleresque', duglaive:pre'histoire de la chevalerie xxxv(1979), 214-15, 249-50; J. Flori,L'Idiologie XI-XII' sidcles (Geneva, 1983); J. Flori, L'Essor de la chevalerie, (Geneva, 1986), 43-9. NeitherAdalberoof Laon nor Gerardof Cambraiseem to me to have been as as theyhave been depicted, and ecclesiastical reactionary however; acknowledgement of a legitimate warrior ethiccan be foundin the ninthcentury, as shownby J. L. The Evidenceof Nithard',in C. Harper-Bill, Nelson, 'Ninth-Century Knighthood: C. Holdsworth and J. L. Nelson (eds.), Studiesin MedievalHistory Presented to R. AllenBrown 1989). (Woodbridge,
(n. 30 cont.)
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and Arthurian architecture administration, romances, through and water-mills. crusadesand castles,to universities chivalry, is Merovingian and Carolingian Earlymedieval political history theCarolingians endin 987 rather than in 887-8,or 911; history; is a slight a neworder is established, as thenthere before hiccup it is by the mid- to late twelfth It is this fortunately century. a bloton an otherwise which criesout hiatus, record, impressive forexplanation, and an explanation whichfitsFrenchhistory fit will,ofcourse, European history. oftheprevious The mildsatire cannot with paragraph compete For the fifteen at least listened medievalists have reality. past years to a debateabout the mutation or revolution ftodale conducted almost Frenchand historexclusively among English-speaking iansofFrance(counting forthese as Catalonia purposes French). on the almost thedebatehas been conducted Although entirely basis of evidencefromwithin whatFrenchhistorians call the - a Platonic of thateternally idealform existing geohexagon instances and cultural France of which historical specific graphical been are mere shadowson the wall - we have nevertheless a general one by no meansconoffered European phenomenon, theBald. fined to theterritory onceruledor claimed by Charles a The apparentbeliefof Guy Bois thatone can reconstruct from in the wholeof Europeanhistory a fewcharters tournant to a tenth-century Burgundian villageis onlythemost relating form of thisstance.33 It is hightimethatwe widened extreme an accountof socioIf we are beingoffered the perspective. to westFrancia, political changewhichappliesonlyor mainly thenwe mustask: whywestFranciabut not elsewhere? If, by orat leasta pana European with we areindeed contrast, dealing serve as a thenthe Miconnaiswill hardly affair, Carolingian between 950 and forthe wholeof Europeanhistory metonym as cognates. In either event Latium andCatalonia 1050,evenwith we mightwant to look more closelyat otherareas of postas an Englandforthesepurposes Europe,counting Carolingian
au de l'antiquitj de l'an mil: Lournand, villagemdconnais, 33G. Bois, La Mutation trans.Jean of the Year One Thousand, fjodalisme (Paris, 1989) [The Transformation aux environs 'Mutations et revolutions Birrell (Manchester, 1991)]; cf. C. Wickham, to numerous common xxi (1991), 32: 'thebelief(apparently) de l'an mil',Midievales, of France,and that a history of Europeis in reality thatthehistory Frenchhistorians commune else is worth (apparement) ['la croyance studying' nothing iade nombreux histoire de France et est en realite une de historiens l'histoire l'Europe que franqais que riend'autrene merite d'etre6tudie'].
189
realm. Should the debate continue, we honorary Carolingian wantto extendthegeographical We might rangeeven further. can presumably leave Celts,Slavs,Magyars and Scandinavians out of thediscussion, but we might well benefit in by drawing the relations between thepoor and the powerful in late tenthand the fragmentation of political century Byzantium powerin there is no spaceto developthishere.34 Al-Andalus, though Bissonis moreconscious of theseproblems of geographical thanmostof thosewho have discussed the 'feudal perspective and he suggests thattherevolution first foundin revolution',35 westFranciadid indeedovertake the restof Europesooneror later:in Englandafter1066; in Germany after1075; in LeonCastille after1110.36 or suggests But he states the case without it out in The much detail. Urracan succession crisis aside, setting in detaila reduction it is surely hardto sustain of the political theNorman on theone hand,and upheavals following Conquest ofGregorian thecombination revolution and Saxonrevolt on the on to mere froth the of waves the feudal revolution. To other, do so, moreover, meansblurring distinctions between significant and thesupposedly case ofFrance. England, Germany defining The radical German as ofthe affecting changes society a result of war between and 1122 civil 1073 fifty years (arguably up to were indeed one that 1156) accompanied by something might But thistookplace within a polity wishto call violence. which
and penetes, see RosemaryMorris,'The Powerful and the Poor in 34On dynatoi Law and Reality',Past and Present, no. 73 (Nov. 1976); Tenth-Century Byzantium: P. Lemerle,Agrarian theOrigins to the Twelfth ofByzantium History from Century: The Sources and Problems in (Galway,1979), 90-108; A. Harvey,Economic Expansion theByzantine 900-1200 (Cambridge, Empire, 1989), 37-44; M. Kaplan, Les Hommes et la terre du 6 au 11 sidcle the d byzance (Paris, 1992). The debate about whether recent oppressionof the poor reallytook place in a sense echoes (or anticipates) about whether the 'feudalrevolution' was actually a mere documentary arguments 'revelation'. For Islamic Spain, see P. Chalmeta, 'Concessionesterritoriales en de historia, vi (1975); D. Wasserstein, TheRiseand Fall ofthe Al-Andalus',Cuadernos in IslamicSpain, 1002-1086 (Princeton,1986); E. PartyKings: Politicsand Society Manzano Moreno,La frontera de al-Andalus en epocade los Omeyas (Madrid, 1991); de Taifas:Al-Andalus en el sigloXI (Historia M. J. VigueraMolins (ed.), Los reinos de EspafiaMenendezPidal, viii,Madrid,1994). to consider non-Islamic Spainas a whole,see PierreBonnassie, 3 For a willingness 'From theRh6neto Galicia:Origins and Modalities of theFeudal Order',in hisFrom in South-Western trans.JeanBirrell SlaverytoFeudalism Europe, 1991). (Cambridge, reveal almostno sense of By contrast, Poly and Bournazel,Feudal Transformation, as their indexclearly Ghent possiblelifebeyondthehexagon, shows;thephrase'from to Barcelona, from Poitiers to Macon', forexample,delineates theknownworld(95). 29. 36Bisson,'Feudal Revolution',
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from itsinception hadscarcely known theconcept ofpublic order to have characterized west Franciauntil thought Carolingian themillennium; around evenin ninth-century eastFrancia there orplacitawhich is little courts sees Wickham signofthecomital of the Carolingian as so characteristic The Ottonians order."37 in thelimited senseoforganizbutdidnotgovern ruled, (except in In this their fiscal resources east ing quiteintensively). Saxony followed east Frankish even while precedent, they largely in A afresh some careful inventing rulership reading respects." of Thietmar's Chronicon of publicdisorder in willrevealplenty in the form of often earlyeleventh-century Saxony, shockingly violent interactions between Saxon magnates, whichfrequently Butit also reveals a kindofpublicorder wentquiteunpunished. maintained counts and as well as by kings, without by bishops of sense more one have there a that might alwaysbeing strong meantless of the other.39 This publicorderwas one of norms rather thaninstitutions, Carolingian-style supervision by lacking In thisrespect also it followed or exhortation missi bycapitulary. eastFrankish precedent. to from The shift the large'refuge fortification' (Fluchtburg) and centre fortress which was bothhometo a family thesmaller and of its consciousness has been notedby German historians further from thatfound notmuchdifferent givena chronology ofa mutation havenotplaceditat thecentre west;however, they ifitcouldbe made anditis doubtful structure), (exceptinfamily one.40Lemarignier's to sustain collapseof thepaguscannotbe invoked here,foreast of theRhinethepagusin thatsensehad
see K. Leyser,'Ottonian ofOttonian limitedness government, 38 On thepatrimonial and itsNeighbours, 900-1250(London, 1982); in his MedievalGermany Government', of rulership, see T. Reuter,'Regemque, reinvention on the Ottonian quemin Francia and in patria magnifice recepit:Ottonian Rulershipin Synchronic pene perdidit, and E. Schubert in G. Althoff Diachronic (eds.), Herrscherreprdsentation Comparison', und Forschungen, Sachsen(Vortrige imottonischen xlvi,Sigmaringen, forthcoming). viewof thesetensions, from Thietmar, above,n. 5; fora fuller 3 See thequotation Gewaltund Frieden see T. Reuter,'Unruhestiftung, Fehde, Rebellion,Widerstand: and H. Seibert(eds.), Die Salier und in S. Weinfurter in der Politikder Salierzeit', Wandelim Reich der Salier und ideengeschichtlicher das Reich, 3, Gesellschaftlicher 1991). (Sigmaringen, in O. Engels,'Das ReichderSalierfullreferences to theliterature with 40 Surveys in Weinfurter and Seibert(eds.), Die Salier unddas Reich,iii, Entwicklungslinien', in TwelfthNoble Self-Consciousness 499-505; J. Freed, The Countsof Falkenstein: 1984),especially Century Germany (Trans. Amer.Phil.Soc., lxxiv,no. 6, Philadelphia, view of the and the 'Schmid-Tellenbach' forthe linksbetweenthesedevelopments of agnaticlineages. development below,203. 37 Wickham,
191
territcounties had beencoherent and evenwhere existed, rarely theend had largely ceasedto be so longbefore orialunits, they of theOttonian-Salian without, anyeffect apparently, theocracy did The crisisof medieval rule at all.41 on theocratic Germany it and replacing not end the old orderby castellanizing public forcastleswere and predation, arbitration courtswithprivate wereof negligible and publiccourts there importance. already, ofbetween 1073and 1080 was deprived Whatitinerant rulership which it nota holdon publicorder and logistics, was legitimacy didnotdo a CheshireIV's authority hadnever Henry possessed. it was smashed like thatof the earlyCapetians; cat vanishing an of God's and him a enemy appear tyrant publicly by making a reduced him from outside and bypreventing church, travelling in of the the course The restored of heartlands. set rulership that with remarkable continuities shows twelfth practised century for a lackofconcern and Salianperiod, in theOttonian including attention did not devote much even Barbarossa order: public to it.42 itself late and arguably Carolingianized by contrast, England, had everbeenable to do thantheCarolingians morethoroughly One maystill havedoubts aboutthe'maxfortheir ownempire. imalist' view of the Old Englishstateso eloquently developed in recentyears, especiallyby JamesCampbell and Patrick The use by rulersof harrying Wormald.43 (i.e., state-directed of a lack Bissonic as a means law-enforcement violence) suggests in so of sophistication a allegedly advanced.44 surprising polity
41 'La Dislocation dupagus et le probleme desconsuetudines', in J.-F.Lemarignier, du moyen d la memoire de Louis d'histoire Milanges Halphen (Paris,1951); dgedidias in'royal for the nature ofeast-Frankish/German counties andtheir role government', seeReuter, inthe Middle 92-4,218-20. Germany Early Ages, seeT. Reuter, 'The Medieval German The 42 Forthese developments, Sonderweg? and itsRulers in theHighMiddleAges',in A. Duggan(ed.), Kings and Empire inthe Middle inthe Middle Kingship (London, 1993);T. Reuter, Ages Germany High and K. Leyser, in T. Reuter(ed.), Ages,1056-1356(London,forthcoming); (London, 1994). Westill await a comprehensive ofthe statement case:seeprovisionally 43 Campbell, in England?'; 'Wasit Infancy 'The United ofEngland: The J.Campbell, Kingdom inA. Grant andK. J.Stringer the Achievement', Anglo-Saxon (eds.),Uniting Kingdom? TheMaking 'The LateOld English ofBritish History (London, 1995);J.Campbell, State:A Maximum View',Proc.Brit.Acad.,lxxxvii (1994); P. Wormald, 'Engla Lond: The Making ofan Allegiance', vii(1994). JlHist.Sociol., 'WasitInfancy inEngland?', twotenth-century cf. 6, with examples; 44Campbell, also Harthacnut's of the tax rebels in Worcester in 1041,Anglo-Saxon harrying
(cont.onp. 192)
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- so tight, standards thatone couldtake contemporary indeed, itoversimply itscentral as incontemporbycapturing apparatus, orCordoba, butprecisely not as incontemporaryConstantinople The Norman washardly the aryFranceor Germany.46 Conquest lastinstance of this:thesuccessions of 1100and 1135,as wellas the coups attempted by John in 1192-3 and by Louis in 1215-17 - failing in the end, but hardlydoomedfromthe - showthat thisstructural survived a very beginning continuity methods northlongtime.The predatory appliedby William's Frenchfollowers to Englanddid indeedleave deep markson and laterIrish Englishsociety (not to mention Welsh,Scottish butthey tookplace in a worldin which society), publicinstitutionsat no pointeffectively ceasedto exist, notevenduring the short where whatwas at issuewas much periodoftheAnarchy, morewhoshould control thanwhether or not publicinstitutions should Violence there was exist.47 they was, but there certainly nevera pointat which there was nothing else. Bisson'sanalysis, 'in Englandassaultson churchlands and dispossessions were common from about 1070,wererepressed underHenryI, then in notorious troubles under exploded (1137-45)', seems Stephen me to owe too much to traditional StrongKing/Weak King schemata.48 If thesetwo brief accounts shouldmakeus wonderwhether there be west Frankish andrequiring might something specifically
recensions C and D, in English Historical Chronicle, Documents, i, c.500-1042 (ed. D. Whitelock, 2nd edn, London, 1979,235); 'Florence'ofWorcester's account, ibid., - 'Royal violencemaintained 291. Campbell'scomment the peace' - encapsulates Jtatisme of medievalists in fourwords. prevailing 'A Hand-ListofAnglo-Saxon xvii Lawsuits',Anglo-Saxon 45P. Wormald, England, Texts (1988); SimonKeynes,'The Fonthill Letter',in M. Korhammer (ed.), Words, and Manuscripts: Studiesin Anglo-Saxon Culture Presented to HelmutGneusson the Occasion of his Sixty-Fifth Birthday(Woodbridge, 1992); Keynes, 'Crime and Punishment'. and 46K. Leyser, 'The Anglo-Saxons"At Home"', in Leyser, Communications Powerin Medieval, ed. Reuter, 109. Of course, this did not exclude subsequent predationin the localities: R. Fleming, Kings and Lords in ConquestEngland (Cambridge,1991). 47For a balanced account of government duringthe 'Anarchy',see G. White, in Government', in EdmundKing (ed.), TheAnarchy ofKing Stephen's 'Continuity 'The Aristocracy', and C. Coulson, Hollister, (Oxford,1994); cf.also C. Warren Reign 'The Castlesof the Anarchy', ibid.,64-6, 67-78, respectively. 48 Bisson,'Feudal Revolution', 29.
(n. 44 cont.)
and the royalgrip on the politywas tightby enforcement,45
But undoubtedlykings made serious attemptsat law-
193
west Frankish explanationsabout the 'feudal specifically consideration of westFranciaitself shouldmakeus revolution', stillmorewaryabouttreating it as a general For phenomenon. has its own Midi in Swabiaand Bavaria,and just as Germany inthelandsnorth oftheHumber, so France England byinversion withits wide regional does not wholly fitthe itself, variation, modelsupposedly derived from itshistory. Theremustbe serious doubtsabout the accuracy of the capitularies' pictureof butthere can be no doubtthat the Carolingian reality anywhere, was neverhomogenous, not even at its core Carolingian polity under Charles and Louis. German historians and miscommonly thenature of Ottonian rulewithan imageof leadingly compare under andLouisthePious;49 but Carolingian power Charlemagne to take evidencefrom southern and east-central tenth-century Franceand compare it with a generalized Carolingian pastis just as misleading. andFrance Provence south oftheLoire Burgundy, werenotFrankish and we do notknowall that much heartlands, aboutthenature oflocalorder there evenattheheight ofFrankish rule.Royalabsencefrom thesouthdid notbeginin 987; it had been Charles andLouis,anditwasbuilt into already practised by thewestFrankish from In the connorth, kingdom by birth."5 thefaceofpublicorder, itchanged, never trast, vanished; though there weresubstantial in theoperation continuities of themajor Flanders, principalities Normandy, Anjou,royalFranciabetween thetenth and theeleventh centuries. Adriaan Verhulst, of the socio-economic face of the thespread speaking mutation, of the'classicdemesne of estate has comregime' organization, butfirmly aboutthetendency of 'meridionalists' plainedgently to ignore or glideovertherealdifferences between Francesouth and northof the Loire. His complaints apply withas much forceto socio-political historians as theydo to socio-economic
ones.5
One of theserealdifferences lies in thekindsof thing we can know. Our view of regions whosehistory is primarily known
zwischenkaro49For example, H. Keller, 'Zum Charakterder 'Staatlichkeit' Reichsreform und hochmittelalterlichem Friihmittellingischer Herrschaftsausbau', alterliche xxiii (1989); forcomment, see Reuter,'Regemque, in Francia Studien, quem peneperdidit'. P. Classen,'Die Vertrige von Verdunund von Coulaines843 als Grundlagen des 50 westfrdnkischen cxcvi (1963); Nelson, Charlesthe Reiches', Historische Zeitschrift, Bald, 135, 163-4, 174. withMonique Bourin,Medizvales, xxi (1991), 60-1. 1 Interview
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charters witha bitof hagiography thrown in (like that through ofmost ofthepost-Carolingian willbe inherMidi,forexample) from ourviewofregions different whose is primarily ently history known narrative whentheseare rich sources, through especially and juicy: think, forexample,of Gregory of Tours' Francia, Bede'sNorthumbria, Thietmar's orOrderic's Saxony Normandy; or indeed of the necessary contrasts betweenour view of and our view from law-codes, Spain,derived Visigothic largely of Merovingian from writers likeGregory Gaul,derived largely is anymethodological ofTours.I doubtwhether there corrective which willletus allowforsuchdifferences and confidently. fully And they cut both ways: fuller charterevidence would ourviewofHenry II's Saxony transform as seenby undoubtedly of Merseburg Thietmar or earlyeleventh-century as Normandy seen by Orderic, but so would a southern Frenchor Catalan our viewof theMidi.52 eviThietmar transform Fullercharter dencewouldalso transform ourviewoftheMidi,of course:the reason ofthetenthand whywe tendto be offered comparisons Midi a more with Carolingian past eleventh-century generalized is because the history of the ninth-century Midi is not rich enough. notonlyby theflavour But whatwe can knowis determined of the sources, but also by the traditional recipesused to cook of and twenthe traditions nineteenththem, meaning divergent The mutation ftodale is a historiographies. tieth-century of a French tradition, historiographical by-product veryspecific in in is rooted This turn thatof theregional firmly monograph. on rulers and their oftheconcentration deliberate avoidance that both schoolenjoined of theAnnales doingswhichthe founders Grand by exampleand by precept;but to avoid one specific and the regional is not to avoid themall, however, Narrative ofrecent decadeshave,it seemsto me,beenjustas monographs indebtedto those offeredby G. Duby, P. Toubert and The was to theetatiste tradition. P. Bonnassie as olderwriting and has exported the mutation to Latium,Lombardy tradition at leastit is muchin demand and in Catalonia Catalonia, among andtheReich from absence theinhabitants; itsapparent England of thiskindof else absence as the as much anything mayreflect thereis a that I mean to do not for these argue study regions.
52 in South and Commemoration Pasts:History Cf. T. N. Bisson,'Unheroed before theAlbigensian Frankland lxv(1990). Crusades', Speculum,
195
in theapproach; on thecontrary, these flaw fundamental regional the most are probably studiesdripping withthickdescription era of French, contribution in the post-war perhaps significant ofmedieval ofany,historiography to ourunderstanding society. We wouldalmost all be better off ifthere existed works certainly
et reseaux with titleslike Espaces ecclesiastiques familiauxdans la BaviereLuitpoldingienne or Contestations et lIgitimations du pouvoir au bassinde la Tamise,VIII-XIe siecles. What I do mean to argue
- as equally,of course,in the is thatthereis in thistradition Italian andSpanish German, traditions, English, historiographical - a specific all ofwhich tendto avoideyecontact with strangers The seigneurie at things.53 whoseorigins, banale, wayof looking and relation extent to publicorderare ultimately what nature, thiswholedebateis about,seems inGerman to me,as a specialist to be something But an history, theyhave in OtherCountries.
et reseaux Espaces ecclesiastiques familiauxmightwell turnout to on Adelsherrschaft und Reformmdnchtum in Aquitaniendes 10. would draw more on than Selbstverstdndnis Jahrhunderts probably
be fullof it,justas an equallyhypothetical German monograph
on Grundherrschaft not quite the same thing as seigneurie (itself for its I could not be sure whether banale) conceptual apparatus. thiswouldbe becausetheFrench find banale where the seigneurie Germans findSelbstverstdndnis, or becauseone or the otheror bothreallyhad been in the regions in question all alongand I had not known how or where look for to I them; just moreover, us that most of would not be able to choose. If we do suspect notwantthehistoriography of medieval a set Europeto remain ofparallel universes rather thancomparexplored bymetonymy and withmuch ison,we shallneedto lookmuchmoreexplicitly thanhas been usualat wherewe and our greater sophistication and howwe and they stand, neighbours gotthere.
of Southampton University Reuter Timothy
observations on this problem can be found in C. J. Wickham, 53Thoughtful 'Problemsof Comparing Rural Societiesin EarlyMedievalWestern Europe', Trans. Roy.Hist. Soc., 6thser.,ii (1992), 222-5; see also myforthcoming lecture, inaugural 'Medieval Politiesand ModernMentalities'.
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IV* 'One doesnotsafely betagainst inhistory', as Thomas continuity Bisson in that.His remarks, before, effect, neatly doing precisely 1994article is one of themosteffective and elegant defences of theviewthatthecomplex of socio-political which took changes theyear1000wassufficiently coherent andresulted placearound in a sufficiently different order to deserve the label political revolution: the'feudal no since the revolution', less.1But, pendulumis swinging the'mutationist' in thishalfawayfrom position to DominiqueBarthelemy and to a new decade,thanks largely schoolofsociologically minded historians in theUnited it States, is comprehensible thatBissonshouldimmediately be criticized, himself and byone oftheleading ofthe members byBarthelemy American I White. have intellectual school, Stephen many points of reference in common withthislatter but groupof historians; I findmyself nonetheless on the side of Bisson. It largely may therefore be worthwhile to spend a few pages setting out a to his,though witha slightly different take. position analogous This Comment is notstrictly a defence of Bisson, it is however; aimedmore at reformulating ofthedebate. I willbegin theterms a viewofwhatdidnotchange with around theyear1000,before whatarguably did. discussing One common debatethatis aspectof the feudalrevolution is an implicit moralism: the Carolingian particularly unhelpful
* I am grateful in thisdebateforreading to all theotherparticipants and critiquing thisarticle. 1 T. N. Bisson,'The "Feudal Revolution"',Past and Present, no. 142 (Feb. 1994), 9. Bissongivesa fullbibliography, of whichI wouldsingleout theseminal overview of the of 1980 by P. Bonnassie,'From the Rh6ne to Galicia:Originsand Modalities in South-Western trans. Feudal Order',in his FromSlaverytoFeudalism Europe, Jean Birrell(Cambridge, I would slightly 1991). If I have to chooseterminologies, prefer 'mutation' to 'revolution', -P. Polyand E. Bournazel, La Mutation J. following flodale, note seemsto me weaker- though X'-XIP sidcles (Paris, 1980), becausetheformer thatBisson(8) sees itas stronger. (The word'feudal'losesmanyofitsprior specificitin thisdebate;butI willadoptBisson'sand Bonnassie's ies, whichwereweakalready, to save arguingabout yet usage here, while it is not the Marxistusage I prefer, the anotherword.) In my comment on Bisson I am also takinginto consideration which comments and Stephen D. White, appeared previous byDominiqueBarthelemy in 'Debate: The "Feudal Revolution"', Past and Present, no. 152 (Aug. 1996) (hereon this othermajorwritings after and White,respectively). Barthelemy's Barthelemy themeinclude:'La Mutationf6odalea-t-elleeu lieu?', Annales E.S.C., xlvii (1992); de Venddme La Socidte dansle comte de l'an milau XIrV sidcle (Paris, 1993); 'Il mito e in G. Dilcher and C. Violante(eds.), Strutture signorile degli storicifrancesi', X-XIII (Bologna,1996). dellasignoria rurale neisecoli trasformazioni
197
is depicted and post-Carolingian state,withall its weaknesses, and someas at leastmorepalatablethana bunchof anarchic lords (or barons,or castellans). timespsychopathic Here, the of the triGrandNarrative and twentieth-century nineteenthto speakthrough that itmanages is so powerful ofthestate umph as inall itspredecessors. in thisdebate, all theparticipants nearly Hence Bisson'suse of wordslike 'unconstructive', 'capricious' I citehim lords: hiseleventh-century todescribe and 'unpolitical' in are normal similar for author, phrases onlyas themostrecent state hostile to effective far I am the literature.2 from power on theseissues but anyposition at leastin mylifetime, myself, were Aristocrats in the Middle Ages seemsutterly misplaced. The of of the one it was in all brutal signs aristocracy. periods; Belleme of Robert twelfth of the torturers famous century, early back in every and Thomasof Marle,had precursors generation in Gregory of Tours' time.None the less, these to Rauching of theMiddleAges,but notonlyopposedthestates aristocrats ofBelleme wasa duke,andRobert as well- Rauching ranthem we feel know but We an earlforWilliam this, tempted Rufus.3 at ofus needto find becausemany to makedistinctions, perhaps with in of the leastsomegroupofpowerful past people anypart In myview,in our period, whomwe can feelsomesympathy. is notthere, and there are simply is fruitless; sucha search they their absence. no pointin regretting to us, can seemattractive The Carolingian state,admittedly, which in a with abuses because its spokesmen way regretted in the wholedebateof Hence theprominence we can identify. lineofcontinuity is a direct ornotthere aboutwhether arguments and elevbetween lay illegalities against legislation Carolingian simoccasional clerical action) against (and protest enth-century is a bad guide to reality; ilar excesses.This focuson rhetoric Nelson's exasperated sentences, quoted by Whiteat the Janet
Bisson,'Feudal Revolution',18, 19. 6 vols., viii.5(ed. M. Chibnall, Ecclesiastical Orderic Vitalis, History, Respectively, ofNogent,De vitasua,iii.11, 14 (ed. G. Bourgin, Oxford,1973,iv, 158-60); Guibert v.3 (ed. B. of Tours, Decemlibrihistoriarum, Paris, 1907, 178-9, 197-9); Gregory Krusch and W. Levison, Monumenta Germaniae Historica [hereafter MGH], of rerummerovingicarum, i.1, Hanover,1951, 197-8). For a nice survey Scriptores the deliberate use of violentacts forpoliticalpurposesby the Normans(including, of course, kings and princes), see R. Bartlett,The Making of Europe (London, 1993), 85-101.
2
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end of his Comment, are entirely But something else apropos.4 abouttheCarolingian which needsto be recognized period, gives this was thecentury itsownspecial 750-850,in particular, irony: theperiodof themostambitious publicpoweron theEuropean in the wholeMiddle Ages up to the late thirteenth continent ofcourse also and evensincere with elaborate (although century, rhetoric and a legitimizing politicalprogrammes, oppressive) with thepoorfreewhich basedon theking'sspecialrelationship ofaristocratic itssternest it was also, fuelled behaviour; critiques theperiodwherethosesamearistocrats, however, strengthened ofgovernment, estabat theheart bytheir irreplaceable position often force a hegemony overtheir lished by poorneighbours thatby no meansall of themcould have claimedin the two was in mostparts It was 800,not1000,that centuries. preceding of for the establishment the ofCarolingian Europe turning-point dominance.Afterthat, all dissensionwas local aristocratic vs. lesser aristocrats between landedpolitical 6lites: lords; greater not least, and office vs. those without; by public legitimized will vs. laity. Faced withcompeting clerics dominators, peasants case (whilenot evilin every havelookedforthelesser doubtless one way or another, to intervene ever beingin muchposition was willof who thatlesserevilactually withsomeexceptions);5 and was cerfrom coursehavebeen different villageto village, themost'legitimate' notnecessarily power.I wouldalso tainly of Europe,mark arguethattheyear1000did not,in mostparts of the lands of the increasein the expropriation a significant areasoftheIberian The Christian peninpeasantry. independent areasmayoffer other sula are one exception; marginal relatively rare wereeither elsewhere, already others; peasants independent in the interstices well to survive or (as in Italy)managed fairly ofaristocratic power.6
4 JanetL. Nelson, reviewof T. Head and R. Landes (eds.), The Peace of God: the Year 1000 (Ithaca, 1992), in Francearound and Religious Social Violence Response lxix (1994), 168, as quoted in White,222. in Speculum, see forexampleT. Head, 'The beingone exception: 5 The Peace of God sometimes of God: Andrewof Fleury'sAccountof the Peace League of Bourges',in Judgement Head and Landes (eds.), Peace of God; occasionalmurdersof unjust lords being dans la societefeodale:la memoire, see R. Jacob,'Le Meurtredu seigneur another: E. S.C., xlv (1990). Annales le rite,la fonction', et 61 have made the pointabout the year800 alreadyin C. Wickham,'Mutations xxi (1991); it stillneedssystematic de l'an mil', Midievales, aux environs revolutions however.So does the pointabout the year 1000, come to that,but at least research, La studieshere. I citefrom thereare moremonographic amongmanyP. Bonnassie, 2 vols. (Toulouse, 1975-6); R. Pastor, du Xe d la findu XP siecle, du milieu Catalogne
(cont.onp. 199)
199
of the date '1000', whichis becoming The verysharpness variations: standardin much of the debate (with inevitable is a problem or 1030-60 in Catalonia), 980-1030 in Burgundy, ofthedecenIn Italy, thewholeprocess of 'mutationist' theory. slow ofpolitical and/or tralization powerwas a very privatization in 900 butincomplete in 1100;here,theimagery one,beginning In England, seemsparticularly of revolution parinappropriate. (perhapsacrosstheperiod1000-1160) analogous changes tially of nearlycontinuous took place in a context royalhegemony. most ofthem or four violent, shifts, major dynastic Despitethree oftheleading substantial and despite theconsequent replacement thepolitical on twooccasions,7 ofthecountry aristocratic families is ofcrisis The focus on a intact. period particular system stayed the now some of a particularly French (shared by preoccupation if ofFrancein theUnited ofhistorians States); contingent strong forEuropean as it is goingto be takenup as a marker history a some areas ofEurope be defended for at least then it must whole, bothProvence France(i.e., including outsidemodern/medieval I would moreeffectively than ithasbeenhitherto. and Catalonia) the hundred-page instance: cite here one emblematic chapter the 'revolution entitled flodale' in FranqoisMenant'sexcellent bookon eastern between 900 and 1300,which recent Lombardy theincreased useoffiefs andvassalage is aboutnothing other than inan imperial lawof 1037.It makes inthearea,anditsregulation no reference to crisis and notmuchmention evenof systematic conflict: is virtually here,theterminology useless.8 Thiscanbe generalized further. Focuson theyear1000and its associated transformation itsrolein gainsitsedgein Francefrom Frenchimageries of national Northern (and, increascentrality. France serves as the fulcrum of perfected ingly,southern)
Resistencias enla jpoca delcrecimiento de la formacidn y luchas campesinas y consolidacidn X-XIII (Madrid, 1980), forthe Iberianpeninsula;F. feudal: Castillay Le6n,siglos lombardes au moyen Menant, Campagnes dge (Rome, 1993), 421-4; E. Conti, La dellastruttura nelcontado 3 vols. (Rome, 1965), formazione agrariamoderna fiorentino, en Bas-Languedoc, 2 vols. (Paris, i, 162-70; M. Bourin-Derruau, Villages mdedidvaux La Societed dans le comte'de 1987), ii, 225-31, for peasant survival;Barthelemy, Venddme, 352-61, 441-50, foran area withfewpeasantallods alreadyin 1000. England(Cambridge,1991). I 7 See esp. R. Fleming,Kingsand Lordsin Conquest shall not attempt to referto the rest of the huge historiography on these English standsapartfromchangesin the strictly developments; Englandanywaygenuinely laterin thisComment do notsystematiclands,and mypropositions post-Carolingian allyapplythere. 8 Menant,Campagnes 563-671. lombardes,
(n. 6 cont.)
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one of the majorFrenchcontributions to European feudalism, civilization andtherefore crucial toFrench emotionally scholarship, as is thenation-state to theEnglish and thecityto theItalians. The French havelongbeenobsessed aboutwhatis byarguments feudaland whatis not,in a way thattheItalians, and Spanish Germans havebeenfairly indifferent to (and,iftheEnglish have herematched theFrench, itis only because ofthevisceral importancein English national culture of thedebateabout1066). The Frenchoften seemto see the decentralized feudalworldas the moment of opportunity in central medieval Europe:themoment ofeconomic oftheParisschools, andofthenewer and expansion, morepermanent ofPhilipAugustus and hisheirs nation-building after 1200or so. The economic of thisdecentralized possibilities - indeed, world areparticularly explicit enthusiastically emphasized- in thework ofRobert canbe traced backto Fossier; they Marc Blochhimself, evenif thelatter was lesscommitted to the of theyear1000.' Whenthisworldactually symbolism beganis therefore of morethanordinary in French historical importance culture. Notthat theissueis a trivial but its one, ideological weight means that canbe putinto the'feudal revoluabsolutely everything tion'bysomehistorians: theinvention of crisis, violence, political the of the even the end of the villages, expropriation peasantry, ancient world.Bissondoes not at all engagein thisemotional buthisintervention wouldcertainly risk overdetermination, being taken others for the motives. up by wrong
These are all good reasonsto be distinctly uneasyabout the of feudalrevolution/mutation. But thisdoes not mean imagery that onecanargue for across theperiod, socio-political continuity strucsay,800-1150,in mostof western Europe.The political tures of thereign of Charlemagne, which unified theentire land areaoftheoriginal Economic andbeyond, European Community
de l'Europe:Xe-XII sidcles, et sociaux, 2 aspects economiques 9 R. Fossier,Enfance vols. (Paris, 1982), e.g., 615-18 ff.;M. Bloch, Feudal Society(London, 1961), for foremotionin thisdebateis well illustrated example,65-71. The potential by Poly - as well as interesting - replyto Barth6lemy, and Bournazel'simpassioned 'La Mutationf6odale': J.-P. Poly and E. Bournazel,'Que faut-ilpref6rer au "mutationisme"?Ou le problemedu changement de droit social', Revuehistorique franfais lxxii(1994). et etranger,
201
to thoseof the nearas analogous cannotbe usefully regarded or four lordsofthree castle-based villages apiecein independent I knowbest, theFranceor Italyof 1100. In Italy,the country shifts had taken placeby 1100in thebasicrulesofpolitical major thepatrimony ofspecific familhadbecome office practice: public had becomeformalies; private (suchas vassalage) relationships of politicalaction;a sharp ized as the majorbuilding-blocks and an aristocratic defined between division stratum, militarily, forthefirst timesincethe had appeared therestof freesociety had crystallized and local political Romanempire; relationships of of signorial intothe structures justice, power(rights private - all of whichhave exact and the rest).These developments - mayhave takena century at least,hence Frenchanalogues but created a new their aspect; they decidedly un-'revolutionary' in the which Italian communes of the twelfth world, city century as bestthey without wouldhaveto navigate might anyrecourse to 'Carolingian' here had, if you like, practices."' Something and mutated. and Although England parts(at least)of Germany as of the more Castile hadnotchanged as much this, many nearly specific changeslistedabove can be foundthereas well: the in political existence of a majorstructural shift should practice notbe deniedfora largeproportion ofthecontinent. in Whenthecontinuity vs. change has beendebated argument recent in a wide historical of years, variety periods, proponents Even of changehave often foundthemselves on the defensive. fall western hitherto like the of the fault-lines, unquestioned Romanempire or theIndustrial havebeennotonly Revolution, in identified continuities socialand political spannedby newly butwholly erodedawayin the practices (whichis fairenough), workof somehistorians. This seemsto me wrong.It can lead as if historical peopleto write changedid not takeplace at all, whichis absurd.But if changedid take place, it needs to be - named- if it is to be understood. Historical categorized has to take place. People can and shouldcontest periodization buttodeny theusefulness thevalidity ofthis lineorthat, dividing
in withbibliography, thesedevelopments 10I have characterized elsewhere, briefly C. Wickham,'La mutaci6n feudalen Italia', in A. Malpica and T. Quesada (eds.), Los origines delfeudalismo en el mundo (Granada, 1994); C. Wickham, mediterrdneo and SignorialPower in Twelfth-Century Tuscany', in W. 'Property-Ownership and Power in the Early Middle Ages Davies and P. Fouracre (eds.), Property forPower (Cambridge,1995). The classicsurveyremainsG. Tabacco, The Struggle in MedievalItaly,trans.R. BrownJensen (Cambridge,1989), 151-66, 191-208.
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ofdividing linesat all is decidedly So, it maywellbe that risky. of of 950 and 1050 in specified the political structures regions of800 or 850 and 1100 farapart, butifthose Europearenotthat worthwhile at least then itseems or 1150arestructurally distinct, between thesedates is a moment to go and look to see if there a givensocietyis more when (to use Weberian terminology) in of one idealtype('Carolingian', terms to be described usefully societanother us than (let say,'feudal').Evensimilar say)rather in different be ies in some or manyrespects may significantly - in, for between one and the other continuities this.Specific role of violence,as White the level and strategic instance, ofdifference. thepossibility do not of themselves negate argues in mindthe need to has to go and look, keeping One simply as one does so. categorize such characterize whichmight But whatare thereal changes a divide?I would list two. First, the changing relationship andwider-based localaristocratic between forces, political power more and the suchas thosecontrolled counts, powerful by kings of increasingly the development dukesand bishops.Secondly, and social formal indeed, personalrelationships explicitand, at the local level, whichcome moreand more to boundaries the of theseis precisely The first social practice. characterize has been second the discussed theme Bisson; effectively by very well characterized by Fossier.Let us look at them particularly areasofEurope. on theCarolingian in turn, focusing briefly A local lordin the Carolingian periodhad a greatdeal of de menandpolitical basedon hisownarmed clienteles, facto power, of kingsand of the constraints and he could use it, regardless what that is to say,despite thecounts their localrepresentatives, ofpublicpower."11 we couldcall(becausethey did) thestructures in whichcase be the counthimself, Indeed,sucha lordmight to theking,could suchas disloyalty situation, onlyan extreme Suchmenare theclassicvillains his localhegemony. undermine of the usuallyineffective againstthe legislation Carolingian is but it clerical or ofa massof important moralizing, powerful, that theyhad theirown personalmoral codes, to recognize
a 'statist' Bisson that 12) critiques 228,stresses ('FeudalRevolution', 1 White, nonethelessembraces butBisson Thisis certainly distinction. true, public-private to be oneneeds as do I; it doesnotseemto me that theuse oftheword'public', andseigneurial between useful todistinguish the tofind statist Carolingian terminology - as, I hope, I show later. power
203
- CountGeraldofAurillac and brutal however (d. self-seeking extrabecause of his as a saint his 909), presented by biographer defensive in, forinstance, onlyfighting ordinary self-abnegation wars againsthis neighbours (as Bisson notes),or in fighting a layas wellas a clerical was expressing without ambushes, using were.12 unusual however idealin hisactions, they there werecompeting that On theother hand, peoplealsoknew to operate. weresupposed aristocrats setsofnorms insidewhich runbythecount tribunal orplacitum, haditspublic Every county - notall counts hisproperly for wasalsoa saint (Gerald running forcasesheard but we have quitea lot of documents did so were theprocedures didexist).At suchtribunals, atplacita;they wenttoplacita sometimes as local.Peasants as muchCarolingian to appealagainst lords;in practice theylost,but it is clearthat or they for ofextra-local was important theconcept them, justice to go.13 This imperfect wouldneverhavebothered legalinstituon the the possibility of justicenot dependent tionrepresented in name it it was its and local lord'swill, people respected for theabusesof thepowerful. thattheylamented Lords, their moral or even the not have legitimacy recognized part,may relevance of all royallaw, but theyknewthatwhatwenton at and respected theplacitum had force, it, not leastbecausethey could.Lordsremained to control itthemselves whenthey wanted within in theCarolingian because interested state, office-holding on basis of that could not obtain the it brought them they power how much and no matter their alone; they private landholding it oncein office, which that subverted did,they they recognized the statesystem had its own rules,the rulesof the placitum.
12Odo ofCluny, De Vita S. Geraldi, i.8 (Patrologiae cursuscompletus, serieslatina, 221 vols., Paris, 1844-64 [hereafter PL], cxxxiii, col. 647); cf. Bisson, 'Feudal in general,see the recentsurveyby S. aristocrats Revolution',15; for Carolingian in R. McKitterick Medieval Airlie, 'The Aristocracy', (ed.), The New Cambridge ofSanctity: ii, c.700-c.900 (Cambridge, History, 1995); see also S. Airlie,'The Anxiety St Gerald of Aurillacand his Maker', Ji Eccles. Hist., xliii (1992), whichstresses Gerald'sstrangeness. But a fullanalysis of the local powerof Carolingian aristocrats to be written. remains De Vita S. Geraldi, i. 11 (PL, cxxxiii, cols. 649-50); cf.thecounts 13 Odo of Cluny, who cut placitashortto go hunting, in Capitularia, i (ed. attackedby Charlemagne A. Boretius, Nelson MGH, Hanover, 1883), nos. 23, c. 17; 49, c. 1 (63, 135). Janet of West Frankish in Carolingian analysesthe working placitain 'Dispute Settlement West Francia', in W. Davies and P. Fouracre(eds.), The Settlement in ofDisputes the importance of local Early MedievalEurope(Cambridge,1986). She establishes local normative in them,but she also gives and, by implication, procedures practices the examplesof peasantsas plaintiffs (48-52).
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There was, in effect, a dialectic, between central (public) and local (private)power,whichcharacterizes theeighth and ninth centuries throughout Carolingian Europe,and in someareasthe tenth and partof theeleventh centuries as well. Lords ran the it to theirown needs,but publicpolitical system, redirecting the public system determined what legitimate were practices to be, and lordsknewit; thenorms their supposed determining ownlocalpractice much moredefacto, andsome were, however, of them remained in theframework of what uncodified, largely Bourdieu callsa habitus.14 In 1100, this politicalpatternno longer existed in the areasofEurope, in thelandsmost ex-Carolingian except perhaps associated with theemperor in Germany closely placita (although were never andintheoccasional coherent there), strong unusually orduchy wasoneuntil thewars ofthe1080s-90s county (Tuscany and thedeathof Matildain 1115).Instead, we find localprivate All themajorlandowners of post-Carolingian Europehad their owntribunals and their own customs (usus, consuetudo), by now, which established locallegalities. Lordsignored eventhese;their arbitrariness was itselfsanctioned (the by local expectations habitus their Their could, by recognizing again). dependants lannatures, authority, usingnormative appeal to theirbetter no sometimes but this normative guage, successfully; language it from a wider derived Thus, although political system. longer in in thecountryside is clearthatlordly domination was a fact, in which thiswas framework 850 and in 1100alike,thepolitical de had become was different: facto expressed substantially power of God de jure. Seigneurial was not Peace unrivalled; justice in France,15 in twelfth-century assemblies and cityjustice Italy, were it But both of these often with consciously. competed quite on thesame similar ofpreviously informal action, crystallizations collective this levelas theseigneurie time banale, only representing reaction to rather thanlocaldomination. Anyother co-operation Even kings an alternative istic;it did notrepresent legalsystem. and third at best,bythistime, influential werein practice parties of as founts their theoretical arbiters, position despite potential
14 For example, P. Bourdieu, The Logic of Practice,trans. R. Nice (London, 1990), 52-65. "sSee thenew survey, Head and Landes (eds.), Peace ofGod.
or signorie. banales,or Bannherrschaften, lordships,or seigneuries
forexample- was purelymorallordlypower- clericalprotest,
205
of law; sources law. People couldand did playwithalternative lordsintoaccepting or shame to persuade coulduse ritual clerics another. own rules;16theweak coulduse one lordagainst their ofpublicand The dialectic authorities. wereno outside Butthere themoftheCarolingians theworld characterized which private, or cities) hadgoneuntil begantorecon(or princes, selves, kings around1200. ownpolitical their stitute systems to ofthesepatterns from thefirst For me,thesignoftheshift thedisappearance ofEuropeis indeed in most thesecond regions It has been arguedthatthismarksthe end of of theplacitum. anditsreplacement norm-based bycompromises abstract, justice is by now betweenlords. Such a sharpopposition arbitrated whocan easilyshowbothcomundermined by historians fatally in the in the Carolingian victory periodand outright promise oftheeleventh informal more often century.17 dispute-settlement theexistdoes mark weakit became, however But theplacitum, its normative of dialectic ence of the Carolingian behaviour; that the in framework an too, marks important change ending, socialaction. and legitimized structured more us to thesecondaspectof change, This brings perhaps the dominant were and If norms local procedures neglected. forsocial actionin 1100, theyneededto be much framework werein 850. Butso did other thanthey and explicit moreformal I mentioned someof them and local of identity practice. aspects but are part in when they earlier, changes Italy, political listing between In 1100, the social boundary of a widerframework. characterwas muchmoretightly and non-aristocrats aristocrats offree ized thanit had everbeenin 850,whenthestrata society to theking's tenants without a breakfrom stretched dependent criteria as to court,withonlyrough-and-ready (and disputed) it and whowas not.'8Insidearistocratic whowas nobilis society, inmost ofEuropefor familwasbecoming necessary increasingly in exclusiveterms, as lineageswhose themselves ies to define rather thanas looserand members stucktogether, (in theory)
16 of Saints',now in his LivingwiththeDead in the As in P. Geary,'Humiliation G. Koziol, Begging Pardonand Favor(Ithaca, MiddleAges(Ithaca, 1994); see further, 1992), 202-13. du Latium a good exampleis P. Toubert,Les Structures century, 17For theeleventh see (Rome, 1973), 1303-13, 1334-5; for the eighthand ninthcenturies, mddieval in Davies and Fouracre(eds.), Settlement severalarticles ofDisputes. derKarolingerzeit', 18See H. W. Goetz,' "Nobilis": Der Adel im Selbstverstindnis lx (1983). Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte, Vierteljahrschrift ffir
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PAST ANDPRESENT
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more overlapping interest of Karl groups,the Personenkreise Schmid and hisschool.'9 The localpowerofsucharistocrats was defined in the framework of the seiincreasingly territorially lordscouldhavelegalrights outside suchterritories, but gneurie; and the relevantboundaries were they were circumscribed, - and,indeed, known over.20Local territories forother fought forms ofsocialaction werebecoming too:village territorexplicit ies were increasingly in the clear and important, particularly twelfth so wereparishboundaries. century; Seigneurie, village and parish often had thesamebounds, and are often as regarded a common cause (normally, theseigneurie is seen as the having of butin eachcase one can see a separate mover); process prime Villagesneeded,and gained,moreformal govdevelopment. ruralein Italy,the communaute (the comune erningstructures in France,the concejo in Castile). rurale withits ownfranchise Similarly, religiousritual became increasingly systematically In each and neededits own local structures. rootedin villages or local reliinformal local action informal case, community in ninthritual of a sort that can be occasionally sighted gious and defined was replaced sources, century bymuchmoreclearly in bounded the world of 1100 or In patterns shortly thereafter.21 in cities, with theslowemergence thesamething Italy, happened thenetworks ofurban solidofautonomous communes from city centuries. of arity previous in our period,but All of thesedevelopments were separate informal In structure. each had a common case,previously they became or of domination, solidarity identity patterns practice, divisions rule-bound and explicit. muchmoreformal, Europe's ofencellulement, ofthis clearer as a result became process abruptly such it.22 This common as Fossierhas defined structure, linking in marks a of social diverse political sea-change change, patterns that local from thefact and it seemsto result and socialpractice;
des beimmittelalterlichen Haus und Dynastie Adel',Zeitschrift fiirdie Geschichte of of a generation as theorigin that stillstands, cv (1957),an article Oberrheins,
und von Problematik K. Schmid, 'Zur Forexample, Geschlecht, Familie, Sippe 19
inheritance and structures research and debate really changed patterns family (whether isquite another matter). strutture come delle territoriale here isC. Violante, 20A classic 'La signoria quadro K. F. and delsecolo nella Lombardia delcontado organizzative XII',inW.Paravicini
der de l'administration Werner (Beihefte comparee (eds.), Histoire (IVe-XVIIP sidcles) Francia,ix, Munich,1980). 21 See C. Wickham, e clientele Comunitd (Rome, 1995), esp. 57-92, 199-254. 22 288 ff. de l'Europe, Fossier,Enfance
207
had to create therulesoftheir ownsocial lords(or communities) worlds,once thatpublicpowerhad faded.In the Carolingian world, local practiceswere crucial,but they could still be and public actionwas because the frameof formal informal, delineated the possible: by thestate.In 1100,thiswas no longer anditsdefinition couldnotbe delayed. localworld wasdominant, In post-Carolingian social and political Europe,all subsequent wouldbe determined ofthislocally bytherealities developments these realities wouldnotbe completely effaced demarcated world; until themostresolute absolutisms. earlymodern by anything I wouldtherefore of the withBisson,theimportance defend, oftheperiodbetween 850 and 1100as defining political changes a new political formuchof Europe.But,as indicated paradigm - however the 250 yearsis a longtimefora revolution earlier, wordis defined, there havebeenseveral ofthem in thequartermillennium nearest to us. It is, in principle, to identify possible individual dates in all the different of Europe forthe regions changefromone ideal typeto the other;I would use as my discriminator theend oftheplacitum as already noted. tradition, But was it ever suddenenoughto be 'revolutionary'? Here, I think in the debatetendto argueacrosseach thatparticipants other. Bonnassie and Bissonsayyes,butthey are at leastin part from their of the generalizing deepknowledge Catalonia, perhaps best(and certainly thebest-studied) of a example revolutionary in thisperiod.23 crisis Barthelemy saysno, buthe is generalizing from his knowledge of the Ile de Franceand the middleLoire where the valley, processwas a greatdeal slower.Surelythe is that answer itvaries? To Barth6lemy's one canadd Vend6mois theregnum Italiaeofnorth where the was slow Italy, process very to the late survival of the (exceptperhapsin Tuscany,thanks stilllies closerto powerof its march);Burgundy, by contrast, as ithasdonesincetheclassic ofGeorges thesis Catalonia, Duby. This is notan evasion;it is significant thatit varies.24Like the Industrial or the varying moments of middle-class Revolution, political assertionin Europe that began with the French
23Bonnassie, thecrisisperiodis extended to 1200 in T. N. Bisson,'The Catalogne; Crisis of the CatalonianFranchises,1150-1200', in J. Portella(ed.), La formacid i delfeudalisme catala, 2 vols. (Girona,1985-6); P. Freedman,The Origins expansid of PeasantServitude in MedievalCatalonia(Cambridge, 1991), 69-118. G. Duby, La Socieiteaux XP et XIie si&cles dansla region mdcon24 For Burgundy, C. Wickham, naise,2nd edn (Paris, 1971), 137-90; forthe Catalonia-Italy contrast, Land and Power(London, 1994), 208-11.
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thismajorshift could be fastor slow, (relatively) Revolution, or sharply and the variations themselves shed peaceful violent, differences betweenone regionand light on the structural another. The presenceor relative absenceof violenceat the moment ofstructural shift thepolitical (ofcourse, given players, violence was neverwholly be used as a absent)thuscan itself discriminator to compare howsocieties worked in theyears (decaround 1000. This seemsto be a useful ades,centuries) wayfor debateto unfold in thefuture. For it willunfold: theonlything that is certain is that itwillstill be under in three discussion years in the before all the time, year2000, participants collapsewith exhaustion. University ofBirmingham Chris Wickham
REPLY
It is not easyto be precise abouttheincidence and chronology ofpower andsocialchange from tothetwelfth theninth centuries. On thatwe all seemto agree.If there is 'debate'about'feudal it is becausesomehistorians havetroubled others revolution', by evidenceof an daringto read an eventinto the problematic In fact,of my present continuous critics undoubtedly history. inthat seems much interested event, only Dominique Barth6lemy have their suchas it was, whichis not to denythattheothers himself to the aboutit. Stephen White addresses chiefly opinions issue of violence, whichhe understands differently conceptual about from Reuter raises me; Timothy methodological questions I imply ofpowerand old and new 'orders' thecontrast between about what I shall call for shortthe 'geo-historiographical' an of myevidence; whileChrisWickham develops implications of institutional within alternative (broadly) change description I haveproposed.1 and chronology thedynamic
1 'Debate: The "Feudal Revolution":Comment1', Past Dominique Barthelemy, D. White,'Debate: no. 152 (Aug. 1996) (hereafter and Present, Stephen Barthelemy); no. 152 (Aug. 1996) The "Feudal Revolution": Comment2', Past and Present, workspublishedsincemy articlewas White).Amongthe morepertinent (hereafter XI: una svolta? Fried(eds.), Il secolo and Johannes are CinzioViolante written (Annali storico dell'Istituto Quadernoxxxv,Bologna,1993); LesterK. Little, italo-germanico, France(Ithaca, 1993). in Romanesque Maledictions: Benedictine Cursing Liturgical

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The Past and Present Society

DEBATE THE 'FEUDAL REVOLUTION'

THE 'FEUDAL REVOLUTION'

THE 'FEUDAL REVOLUTION'

from and twentieth-century historians as citations ofnineteenthsources.10 contemporary

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who relates how Gerard of Cambrai Cameracensium, Pontificum

ence is confirmed authorof the Gesta by the anonymous

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Communications and Powerin MedievalEurope: The Gregorian Revolution and Beyond

and the royalgrip on the politywas tightby enforcement,45

But undoubtedlykings made serious attemptsat law-

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THE 'FEUDAL REVOLUTION'

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or signorie. banales,or Bannherrschaften, lordships,or seigneuries

forexample- was purelymorallordlypower- clericalprotest,

THE 'FEUDAL REVOLUTION'

und von Problematik K. Schmid, 'Zur Forexample, Geschlecht, Familie, Sippe 19

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