IMC 2013: Sessions
Session 128: Three Crises of the English Peasantry
Monday 1 July 2013, 11.15-12.45
| Sponsor: | Peasants at King's, King's College London |
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| Organiser: | Chris Lewis, Institute of Historical Research, University of London / Department of History, King's College London |
| Moderator/Chair: | Joanna Ludwikowska, Department of English Literature & Literary Linguistics, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań |
| Paper 128-a | Peasants and Conquest: What Did the Normans Make of the English Peasantry? (Language: English) Index terms: Demography, Economics - Rural, Social History |
| Paper 128-b | Peasants under Pressure: Population, Status, and Subsistence in the 13th Century (Language: English) Index terms: Demography, Economics - Rural, Social History |
| Paper 128-c | Peasants after Plague: Standards of Living in the Aftermath of the Black Death (Language: English) Index terms: Daily Life, Economics - Rural, Social History |
| Abstract | The session starts from three of the principal crises affecting the English peasantry during the Middle Ages: Conquest, population pressure, and plague. The Norman Conquest brought into juxtaposition conflicting social institutions, tenurial and legal concepts, and terminologies, with profound consequences for peasant status. In the 13th century rising population pressure and the fragmentation of holdings undermined status as well as household economies, but differentially between different categories of peasant. In the 14th century the Black Death ushered in what has been supposed a golden age for peasants, but standards of living in the late Middle Ages remains a hotly debated topic. One of several themes running through the session is how the changing terminology of groups within the peasantry can be mapped on to real changes in peasant status. |