This chapter argues that regional diversity and change over time were the hallmarks of all early medieval social hierarchies. It begins by exploring slavery and serfdom and the implications of freedom. The first section argues that, although the distinction between free and unfree was of fundamental legal importance, social realities were far more complex. The central section of this chapter focuses on social inequalities organized around the control of land. In looking at the many different forms of lordship that touched peasants' lives it looks at the changing local situation and the...

This chapter argues that regional diversity and change over time were the hallmarks of all early medieval social hierarchies. It begins by exploring slavery and serfdom and the implications of freedom. The first section argues that, although the distinction between free and unfree was of fundamental legal importance, social realities were far more complex. The central section of this chapter focuses on social inequalities organized around the control of land. In looking at the many different forms of lordship that touched peasants' lives it looks at the changing local situation and the political context. The final section moves to the upper social echelons, to ask how high status was perceived, maintained, or contested, and how lordship also expressed political relationships.