This thorough examination of the feudal powers of English kings
in the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries is the only study
to analyze the actual pattern of royal grants and the grantees' use
of their rights, and to place them in the social context of
marriage, kinship, and landholding within the English elite. The
royal rights, known as feudal incidents, included custody of a
tenant's lands when he died leaving minor heirs, the arrangement of
the heir's marriage, and consent to the widow's remarriage. Scott
Waugh shows how the king exercised those rights and how his use of
feudal incidents affected his relations with the tenants-in-chief.
He concludes that royal lordship was of fundamental importance in
reinforcing the power and prestige of the monarchy and in offering
the king a valuable source of patronage.
English kings, therefore, devoted considerable effort to
defining and institutionalizing their feudal authority in the
thirteenth century. It is also clear that families living under
royal lordship were profoundly concerned about these rights,
especially since marriage was of such critical importance in
providing for the smooth transfer of lands from one generation to
another. Given the hazards of life in the Middle Ages, inheritance
by minors was a frequent occurrence, and the king's distribution of
feudal incidents was therefore a delicate political problem. It
raised issues not only about royal finances and favoritism but also
about the fate of families.
Originally published in 1988.
The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand
technology to again make available previously out-of-print books
from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press.
These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these
important books while presenting them in durable paperback
editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly
increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the
thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since
its founding in 1905.
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