ABSTRACT
Medieval historians have been discussing the “origins” of English feudalism and the “impact” of the Norman conquest on English society for over a century; but they have been unable to agree about whether feudalism, or any of its elements, existed in pre-conquest England, or whether the conquest fundamentally transformed English society. An examination of Brown's book shows that the argument necessary to support the orthodox interpretation is much more complex than previous writers have indicated. Brown acknowledges much more readily than other orthodox writers that one cannot defend this interpretation without discrediting the views about feudalism held by its critics or potential critics. In short, Brown claims that in late eleventh-century England, as in eighth-century Frankia, the introduction of feudal military organization had certain logical, automatic, and inevitable “social repercussions” and inevitably led to the formation of a feudal society.
