Multiple lordship in twelfth-century England: a quantitative study

Abstract

ABSTRACT Multiple lordship – holding land or owing allegiance to more than one lord simultaneously – has generally been regarded as a marginal practice in post-Conquest England, caused by the supposed breakdown of the seigneurial honour in the late twelfth century. This article overturns these assumptions with the results of a groundbreaking statistical study of 194 knightly families from Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Staffordshire, 1066–c.1216. The process of reconstruction and selection of these case studies is discussed. Even on a conservative analysis, 33 per cent of these knights had allegiances to multiple lords by c.1216. The proportion of multiple tenants, moreover, remains roughly stable over time, suggesting that this is a normal part of society and not the result of honorial erosion. These findings call for a revision of the way in which we conceptualise local political society, and the nature of the relationship between a lord and his tenants.