The Northern Danelaw - Its Social Structure, c.800-1100 by D.M. Hadley

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This important new study examines the development of rural society in the later Anglo-Saxon period in the northern Danelaw - present-day Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. The author investigates the changing nature of lordship and of peasant status, the transformation of estate structures, the emergence of villages and the development of the parish system between c.800 and 1100. The book also seeks to explain the peculiarities of the region and reassesses the impact of the Scandinavian settlements on its society and culture.

A detailed local study is combined with a consideration of wider issues concerning the society of Anglo-Saxon England, and with new perspectives on the society of the northern Danelaw. A number of methodological problems are confronted, and the various models which have been generated in recent decades for uncovering the nature and organisation of Anglo-Saxon society are examined. Shifting its focus away from the impact of political conquest and invasion on the society and institutions of the northern Danelaw, the work examines longer-term developments and short-term changes unrelated to successive conquests. Finally, it questions some of the old assumptions about the Scandinavian impact and seeks to provide a new impetus to the debate by posing and addressing new questions.