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Class Structure in the Middle Ages

We have relied on the Dictionary of the Middle Ages for information about class structures. We stress that these structures differ in the early and later Middle Ages, two different periods which are often lumped together in many people's minds.

It would be useful to compare the categories into which the DMA divides the discussion of class in the early period--that is, about A.D. 1000-1300--with that in the later period--about A. D. 1300-1500; it would also be useful to learn why the dictionary makes a division at the A.D. 1300 point. So that's what this link suggests that you think about.

Do you have any immediate reactions? The "watershed" event dividing early from late medieval English culture is not in the 1300's but the 1000's--and is ? (if you don't know, go to the end of this link to find out ***).

Take these questions back to the DMA:

1. Do the two sections have the same or different authors? Continuing with this line, find out if the sources used in the two sections are the same. List the sections into which the two sections are divided--e.g., "Economic position, prestige, and power" is the first section for the 1300-1500 article, while the 1000-1300 article begins with a general discussion of "Class and class formation in the Middle Ages" and goes on to discuss "Noble and peasant."
   
2. What factors might account for the different approaches to class in these sections? One would be some sign that medieval life really changed after about 1300. Is such evidence discussed? You should recognize the importance of this point: when major reference works make distinctions like this, they stick! Students are accustomed to accepting them as facts rather than opinions, and that's a custom that can get in the way of serious thinking and learning.
   
3. What is the assumption behind what the author calls the "Realist" approach to class in the second article, p. 419, a concept of class that "could have been real to the people of the time"? How are we to know how such a reality was perceived?
   

*** Answer: The Norman Conquest 1066

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