Law and Government in Medieval England and Normandy Essays in Honour of Sir James Holt

The works of Sir James Holt are well known to all those working in medieval history, in Europe, North America and Japan. This important set of essays, written in his honour, reflects his interests which have set a new agenda for the study of medieval law and government. The first group, on rebellion and warfare, brings to mind his work on the Northerners; the second analyses the issues of land-holding, family and politics; which he discussed in a series of papers from the early 1970s. The third group treats documents, politics and government, a field which Holt made his own, and in which his collection of Henry II and Richard I's Acts is of outstanding importance. The essays have been contributed by specialists who have worked with, studied under, or debated with the honorand.

1. Military intelligence under the Norman and Angevin kings John Prestwich; 2. 1066 and the introduction of chivalry into England John Gillingham; 3. Against the Lord's Anointed: aspects of warfare and baronial rebellion in England and Normandy, 1075–1265 Matthew Strickland; 4. 'Ducal' succession in early Normandy George Garnett; 5. Quadripartitus Patrick Wormald; 6. The discourse of inheritance in twelfth-century France: alternative models of the fief in Raoul de Cambrai Stephen D. White; 7. Anglo-Norman land law and the origins of property John Hudson; 8. The origin of prerogative wardship S. F. C. Milsom; 9. Possessio/proprietas in ecclesiastical courts in mid-twelfth-century England Mary Cheney; 10. The sheriffs of Henry II and the significance of 1170 Julia Boorman; 11. The charters of the Empress Matilda Marjorie Chibnall; 12. A Norman conventio and bonds of lordship in the Middle Ages David Crouch; 13. The archbishopric of York and the extent of the forest in Nottinghamshire in the twelfth century David Crook; 14. Archdeacons and parish churches in England in the twelfth century Brian Kemp; A bibliography of the published writings of Sir James Holt Barbara Dodwell; Index.

This important set of essays, written in honour of Sir James Holt, reflects his interests in England and Normandy from the tenth to the thirteenth century. Particular concerns of the volume are warfare and military intelligence; rebellion and responses to revolt; the development of land law; legal learning and documents.