Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Settlement and Society
- 2 Nature's Frame
- 3 Culture, Ethnicity and Topography
- 4 Small Shires, Deep Roots
- 5 The Gradient of Freedom
- 6 Two Countrysides?
- 7 Village, Farm and Field
- 8 Landscape and Settlement
- 9 Woodland and Pasture
- Conclusion: Time and Topography
- Bibliography
- Index
- ANGLO-SAXON STUDIES
5 - The Gradient of Freedom
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 April 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Settlement and Society
- 2 Nature's Frame
- 3 Culture, Ethnicity and Topography
- 4 Small Shires, Deep Roots
- 5 The Gradient of Freedom
- 6 Two Countrysides?
- 7 Village, Farm and Field
- 8 Landscape and Settlement
- 9 Woodland and Pasture
- Conclusion: Time and Topography
- Bibliography
- Index
- ANGLO-SAXON STUDIES
Summary
Introduction
The previous two chapters argued that natural topography, in the sense of the configuration of landforms, was an important influence on the development of cultural identities and of economic territories in early England. But topography, and in particular the contrast in relief between the east and the west of the country, also had an effect on climate, and was thus the main influence on national variations in late Saxon population densities, as discussed in Chapter 2. The principal argument of this chapter is that climatic variations were, in addition, a major determinant of the long-term social development of different regions of England, especially in the later Saxon period, as large territories progressively fragmented into smaller manors and estates.
The free peasantry
One of the most striking features of Domesday Book is the marked differences it seems to show between the social structure of eastern, and of western and southern, England. In a swathe of countryside running from north Essex through to north Lincolnshire, and extending west into Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Northamptonshire, a significant proportion of the population – ranging from 10 to over 70 per cent, depending on the area – were classed as sokemen (sochemanni) or free men (liberi homines) (Figure 16).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Environment, Society and Landscape in Early Medieval EnglandTime and Topography, pp. 107 - 124Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2012