Villainage in England: Essays in English Mediaeval HistoryVinogradoff, Paul
History
Villainage in England: Essays in English Mediaeval History
Vinogradoff, Paul
Villeinage -- England -- History -- To 1500
The development of the school was evidently to proceed in the direction
of greater accuracy and improved methods. Great service has been done in
this respect by Konrad Maurer[21]. He is perhaps sometimes inclined to
magnify his own independence and dissent from Kemble's opinions, but he
has undoubtedly contributed to strengthen and clear up some of Kemble's
views, and has gone further than his predecessor on important subjects.
He accepts in the main Kemble's doctrines as to the Mark, the allotment
of land, the opposition of folkland and book-land, and expounds them
with greater fulness and better insight into the evidence. On the other
hand he goes his own way as to the Gesíðs (Gefolgschaft), and the part
played by large estates in the political process. Maurer reduces the
importance of the former and lays more stress on the latter than
Kemble[22]. Altogether the German scholar's investigations have been of
great moment, and this not only for methodical reasons, but also because
they lead to a complete emancipation of the school from Eichhorn's
influence.
[Freeman.]
As to the Conquests, Germanist views have been formulated with great
authority by Freeman. A comparison of the course of development in
Romance countries with the history of England, and a careful study of
that evidence of the chronicles which Kemble disregarded, has led the
historian of the Norman Conquest to the conclusion, that the Teutonic
invaders actually rooted out most of the Romanised Celtic population of
English Britain, and reduced it to utter insignificance in those western
counties where they did not destroy it. It is the only inference that
can be drawn from the temporary disappearance of Christianity, from the
all but complete absence of Celtic and Latin words in the English
tongue, from the immunity of English legal and social life from Roman
influence. The Teutonic bias which was given to the history of the
island by the Conquest of Angles and Saxons has not been altered by the
Conquest of the Normans. The foreign colouring imparted to the language
is no testimony of any radical change in the internal structure of the
people: it remained on the surface, and the history of the island
remained English, that is, Teutonic. Even feudalism, which appears in
its full shape after William the Bastard's invasion, had been prepared
in its component parts by the Saxon period. In working out particulars
Freeman had to reckon largely with Kemble's work and to strike the
balance between the conflicting and onesided theories of Thierry and
Palgrave. Questions of legal and social research concern him only so far
as they illustrate the problem of the struggle and fusion of national
civilisations. His material is chiefly drawn from chronicles, and the
history of external facts of war, government, and legislation comes
naturally to the fore. But all the numberless details tend towards one
end: they illustrate the Teutonic aspect of English culture, and assign
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