Fiefs and Vassals has revolutionized the way we think of the Middle Ages. It offers a fundamental challenge to orthodox conceptions of feudalism and overturns centuries of misconceptions about the nature of medieval social relations.



Fiefs and Vassals has changed our view of the medieval world. It offers a fundamental challenge to orthodox conceptions of feudalism. Susan Reynolds argues that the concepts of the fief and of vassalage, as understood by historians of medieval Europe, were constructed by post-medieval scholars from the works of medieval academic lawyers and tha they provide a bad guide to the realities of medieval society. This is a radical new examination of relations between rulers, nobles, and free men, the distillation of wide-ranging research by a leading medieval historian. It has revolutionized the way we think of the Middle Ages.