ABSTRACT
For the general purpose of assessing the utility of the concept of gift-exchange in studying medieval European societies and for the specific purpose of evaluating the recent effort of Susan Reynolds to deconstruct feudalism to the point where gift-giving by lords virtually disappears as an important feature of medieval politics, the two passages on gift-giving just cited are useful for several reasons. The gifts William makes or proposes to make to Hugh can always be construed as takings from someone else, while many of the gifts that the count makes to other men can be construed as takings from Hugh. Nevertheless, the author have strong reservations about Reynolds's argument that because there were significant variations in eleventh-century political practice and because the political discourse of that period was unstable and full of contradictions, that discourse—in which lordship, fidelity, and gift-exchange all figured prominently—did not have an important place in aristocratic regional politics.
