ABSTRACT
Reynolds's primary targets are thus historians such as F. L. Ganshof, who in 1944 canonized feudalism as “one of the great institutions of European history,” defining it as “a body of institutions creating and regulating the obligations of obedience and service—mainly military service—on the part of a free man towards another free man, and the obligations of protection and maintenance on the part of the lord with regard to his vassal. Historians often refer to both fiefs and vassals when neither word is in their sources. By simply demolishing the narrow view of feudalism, rather than following the usual course of trying to amend, marginalize, or bypass it, and by questioning other received ideas, Reynolds also puts herself in an unusually good position to formulate questions about how, without privileging fiefs and vassalage, historians can develop clearer understandings of medieval politics and law.
