Jeremy Hayhoe . Enlightened Feudalism: Seigneurial Justice and Village Society in Eighteenth‐Century Northern Burgundy.(Changing Perspectives on Early Modern Europe, number 10.)Rochester, N.Y. : University of Rochester Press . 2008 . Pp. xii, 309. $80.00.

Abstract

In yet another sign that the study of French rural history is flourishing, several books have recently examined the important but surprisingly opaque institution of feudal justice. They contribute not only a thorough understanding of the juridical practices of the seigneurial courts but also have begun to use their archives to deepen our understanding of rural society. The new book by Jeremy Hayhoe make an impressive addition to the first of these contributions, with a careful reconstruction of the courts' personnel, docket, and reforms. Yet what makes this book particularly important is his “radical conclusion that court records are essential for understanding social relations not only because they provided evidence of the kinds of social bonds that existed and broke between individuals, but because local courts provided some of the context for the elaboration and construction of social bonds” (p. 98). In arguing his case, Hayhoe has convincingly made the seigneurial court an essential tool for any rural historian.