David Crouch

A solid and accessible overview of the Norman rulers of England: from the first appearance of their Viking ancestors in northwest France, to William's conquest of England in 1066, to the death of Stephen in 1154. It is also the history of ruthless ambition, rivalry and war between brothers and cousins. Chapters: 1. Counts of Rouen 2. Richard II and his Sons 3. William of Normandy 4. The Conqueror of England 5. William Rufus 6. Henry I 7. Robert Curthose and William Clito 8. Stephen 9. The Norman Dynasty

"David Crouch offers a new approach to the fascinating study of aristocracy in England, Wales and Scotland and is the first to relate developments in the aristocracies in all three countries during the period of study. His approach is also original in examining the material manifestations of aristocracy rather than looking at institutions and charter-attestations. In the first part of the book he writes about hereditary titles, including those of earl and prince, and also expands on the social styles of baron, knight and squire. The second part of the book focuses on aristocratic insignia and behaviour, including chapters on heraldry, material attributes such as coronets and sceptres, the aristocratic household, residence and religious patronage." "Working from these, the book constructs a fresh picture of the growth in numbers and self-consciousness of the aristocracy in England and the effect that this had on Welsh and Scottish society. There is also an extensive introduction on medieval ideas and modern perceptions of aristocracy." "The Image of Aristocracy provides a context for the more specific and numerical studies of aristocracy and power in Britain. It will be of interest to all historians and students of the Middle Ages, as well as to students of heraldry and genealogy."--Jacket.

A biography of Robert de Beaumont (1104-1168), the earl of Leicester, and Waleran de Beaumont (1104-1168), the count of Meulan. They are the twin sons of Robert de Beaumont, the count of Meulan and the earl of Leicester. Waleran led a rebellion against Henry I in 1123-4. Robert built a solid power-base in the Central Midlands of England. He used his power to gain a high office in Henry II's government after 1154.

William the Conqueror's victory in 1066 was the beginning of a period of major transformation for medieval English aristocrats. In this groundbreaking book, David Crouch examines for the first time the fate of the English aristocracy between the reigns of the Conqueror and Edward I. Offering an original explanation of medieval society -- one that no longer employs traditional "feudal" or "bastard feudal" models -- Crouch argues that society remade itself around the emerging principle of nobility in the generations on either side of 1200, marking the beginning of the ancien regime. The book describes the transformation in aristocrats' expectations, conduct, piety, and status; in expressions of social domination; and in the relationship with the monarchy. Synchronizing English social history with non-English scholarship, Crouch places England's experience of change within a broader European transformation and highlights England's important role in the process. With his accustomed skill, Crouch redefines a fascinating era and the noble class that emerged from it. - Publisher.

From the publisher. Everyday life in early thirteenth-century England is revealed in vivid detail in this riveting collection of correspondence of people from all classes, from peasants and shopkeepers to bishops and earls. The documents edited here include letters between masters and servants, husbands and wives, neighbors and enemies, and cover a wide range of topics: politics and war, going to fairs and going to law, attending tournaments and stocking a game park, borrowing cash and doing favors for friends, investigating adultery and building a windmill. While letters by celebrated people have long been known, the correspondence of ordinary people has not survived and has generally been assumed never to have existed in the first place. Martha Carlin and David Crouch, however, have discovered numerous examples of such correspondence hiding in plain sight. The letters can be found in manuscripts called formularies --^ the collections of form letters and other model documents that for centuries were used to teach the arts of letter-writing and keeping accounts. The writing-masters and their students who produced these books compiled examples of all the kinds of correspondence that people of means, members of the clergy, and those who handled their affairs might expect to encounter in their business and personal lives. Tucked among the sample letters in these formularies from popes to bishops and from kings to sheriffs are examples of a much more casual, ephemeral kind of correspondence. These are the low-level letters that evidently were widely exchanged, but were often discarded because they were not considered to be of lasting importance. Two manuscripts, one in the British Library and the other in the Bodleian Library, are especially rich in such documents, and it is from these collections that Carlin and Crouch have drawn the letters and other documents in this volume.^ They are presented here in their first printed edition, both in the original Latin and in English translation, each document splendidly contextualized in an accompanying essay.