The Earls Of Mercia Lordship And Power In Late Anglosaxon England Stephen Baxter by Stephen Baxter instant download after payment.

This book constitutes a major reappraisal of the late Anglo-Saxon state
on the eve of its demise. Its principal focus is the family of Ealdorman
Leofwine, which obtained power in Mercia and retained it throughout an
extraordinary period of political upheaval between 994 and 1071. In
doing so it explores a paradox: that earls were extraordinarily wealthy
and powerful yet distinctly insecure. The book contains the first
extended treatment of earls' powers in late Anglo-Saxon England and
shows that although they wielded considerable military, administrative
and political powers, they remained vulnerable to exile and other forms
of political punishment including loss of territory. The book also
offers a path-breaking analysis of land tenure and the mechanics of
royal patronage, and argues that the majority of earls' estates were
held from the king on a revocable basis for the duration of their period
in office. In order to compensate for such insecurities, earls used
lordship and religious patronage to construct local networks of power.
The book uses innovative methods for interpreting the representation of
lordship in Domesday Book to reconstruct the affinity of the earls of
Mercia. It also examines how the house of Leofwine made strategic use of
religious patronage to cement local power structures. All this created
intense competition between the earls of Mercia and their rivals for
power, both at court and in the localities, and the book explores how
factional rivalry determined the course of politics, and ultimately the
fate of the late Anglo-Saxon state.