Some Thoughts on ‘Hereditary’ and ‘Proprietary’ Rights in Land under Customary Law in Thirteenth and Early Fourteenth Century England
- 1 January 1983
- journal article
- Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in Law and History Review
- Vol. 1 (1), 95-128
- https://doi.org/10.2307/744004
Abstract
A recent polemical essay by Alan Macfarlane constructed a picture of the social structure of medieval rural England premised on the notion that there was little difference in the nature of family attachment to land between freeholders and those who held their property ‘according to the customs of the manor.’ This essay has received severe criticism from R. H. Hilton, who argues that it ‘ignores the implications of the considerable predominance in many areas of customary land held in villein (i.e. servile) tenure, attempting to assimilate it to freehold as though it were equivalent to sixteenth century copyhold.’ The scale of the difference between these two positions may be attributed to the current state of research into the operation of customary law and its tribunals.Keywords
This publication has 13 references indexed in Scilit:
- Some Aspects of Social Security in Medieval EnglandJournal of Family History, 1982
- ENGLISH SERFDOM AND VILLEINAGE: TOWARDS A REASSESSMENTPast & Present, 1981
- SEIGNEURIAL CONTROL OF WOMEN'S MARRIAGE: THE ANTECEDENTS AND FUNCTION OF MERCHET IN ENGLANDPast & Present, 1979
- The Legal Framework of English FeudalismPublished by Cambridge University Press (CUP) ,1976
- Remembering the Past and theGood Old LawHistory, 1970
- The Origins of the Medieval English Jury: Frankish, English, or Scandinavian?The Journal of British Studies, 1968
- THE ENGLISH ECONOMY IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY: IMPLICATIONS OF RECENT RESEARCHPast & Present, 1964
- Early Manorial JuriesThe English Historical Review, 1962
- A History of Lay JudgesPublished by Harvard University Press ,1960
- English Villagers of the Thirteenth CenturyPublished by Harvard University Press ,1941