Bastard Feudalism

This major work now offers the most radical reinterpretation of the subject for fifty years, transforming our understanding of it and setting a fresh agenda for future work in the field. Michael Hicks argues that bastard feudalism started far earlier and lasted far longer than scholars have traditionally allowed; and that it was far more complex - and often much more positive - in its effects than its conventional image as a source of instability and abuse. Traditionally the concept has been linked almost exclusively to the non-resident gentry of 1300-1500 (the so-called indentured retainers). This book by contrast deals with the period from 1150 to 1650, and reveals more continuity than change over the five centuries it spans. It demonstrates that the most important retainers throughout the period were in fact the members of the lord's own household and the tenants of his estates, men whose bonds with their lord were particularly strong and enduring.