This book discusses the organization of aristocracy and society in medieval East Anglia, and takes as its central theme the role of the feudal transformation. The latter has been regarded by European historians as one of the key turning-points in the history of Europe, prefiguring and setting up the structures of power which would lead into the commercial and industrial revolutions. Yet on the whole it has not been taken up as a point of debate in relation to the history of the British Isles; perhaps the strong historiographical connections between the Norman Conquest and the establishment of feudalism within England account for this lack of interest. Nonetheless, the feudal transformation hypothesis remains the most convenient means by which to assess the reshaping of regional societies during the central Middle Ages, and hence provides the theoretical starting point for the present study. Before setting out some of the general features of East Anglia during this era, there follows a brief analysis of American, French and German scholars’ discussion of this theme.

American scholars have explored relationships between the monasteries and their local environments, covering the period between the late tenth and thirteenth centuries, and have primarily directed their attention towards issues such as kinship and gift-giving. They suggest that European society would have become fragmented and dislocated had abbeys not provided social cohesion within regional frameworks following the breakdown of effective authority during the tenth century. The great strength of these studies lies in their analytical perspectives, linking a range of social processes, and noting the way in which changes took place at a local level within a community framework rather than being imposed from above.

Meanwhile, French and German scholars have devoted immense studies to outlining the development of aristocracies and societies in regional contexts, which have provided the mainstay of the feudal transformation model. The Annales school has used this framework in order to address themes such as social mobility, the connection between the establishment of the nobility and the emergence of the European nation state, and the relationship between slavery and serfdom.