FEUDAL ANTECEDENTS IN ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND

Scope of Study. This study explores the possible existence of feudal characteristics in Anglo-Saxon England. To fulfill this objective, the dissertation formulates a new definition of feudalism based on analysis of elements consistently found in previous interpretations of the term. The criteria of the new definition are then applied to the literature, laws and other documents dating from the Anglo-Saxon period in England to determine whether there is evidence of feudal antecedents prior to the Norman Conquest.;Findings and Conclusions. Between the two primary interpretations of the Norman influence on English institutions, the transitional and the cataclysmic, the theory of transition appears to be the more acceptable. Among the multiple characteristics generally associated with feudalism by previous scholars, four were found to be necessary to a revised definition of the term. This study reaches the following conclusions about those four elements in English society: (1) in Anglo-Saxon England as well as in Anglo-Norman England there was a permanent bond between lords and thanes; (2) in both periods of English history thanes owed service for gifts, frequently land, given to them by their lords; (3) the mounted knight cannot be considered a significant factor in establishing feudalism in England since mercenaries were employed as the major element of the fighting force both pre- and post-Conquest; and (4) the castle had its English antecedents in the Anglo-Saxon burhs. Ultimately, Anglo-Norman England did exemplify ideal feudalism, but there was definitely a transition of Anglo-Saxon political, military and social procedures and customs into the Anglo-Norman period rather than an overwhelming, cataclysmic change in all Saxon institutions following the Conquest.