"By situating the local court within a wide range of para-judicial institutions and behaviors, Hayhoe presents a new vision of village society, one in which communal bonds were too weak to enforce behavioral norms. Village communities had substantial authority over their own affairs, but required the frequent and active collaboration of the court to enforce the rules that they put into place."--BOOK JACKET.

First published in 2006. Feudalism is normally associated with eighteenth-century France only in its more bizarre survivals, as in The Marriage of Figaro, when his seigneur claims the rights to spend the first night with the bride. If feudalism menat no more in the eighteenth century than a few quaint customs that could tickle an audence at the Comedie Francaise, why did French writers attack it so furiously? The author suggests that contemporary writers saw remnants of the feudal regime as important less in themselves, than as symbols of an attitude of mind which the 'enlightened' among them would no longer tolerate. Instead of representing the ideas of the eighteenth century through the eyes of a few outstanding writers, Dr Mackrell has tried to reconstitute the intellectual climate of the ancien regime from the works of largely unknown historians, jurists, economists and others. In this way he illuminates the rich texture of eighteenth-century French thought, without which the ideas of Voltaire, Montesquieu and even Rousseau lose much of their meaning. This study breathes life into the fierce controversies that shook the Age of Reason long before the outbreak of Revolution.

Stories of pageantry associated with kings, queens, and the upper class have long captivated readers of all ages. The reality behind how these entities have operated within set governmental systems has not always been as glamorous as these tales, but it retains an allure of its own nonetheless. This book provides a firm grounding in the historic political, social, and economic implications of rule by monarchy, including the prevalence of the feudal system in medieval Europe. Modern monarchies and the role of the aristocracy in every age are also detailed.

Describes social, political, and economic conditions that contributed to the development of and characterized European feudal society. Bibliogs.

A two-volume set which discusses the economic and social conditions in which feudalism developed, in order to provide a deeper understanding of the processes at work in medieval Europe.