The Pervasiveness of Lordship (Italy, 1050–1500)

Abstract

The impact of medieval lordship on the society it dominated has not received the attention it deserves. This article stresses the need to look at lordship from the bottom up, making an effort to understand how much and in which ways lordship weighed on the life of subjects, by developing the notion of its ‘pervasiveness’. Such a concept is arguably the most effective if we want to evaluate how seigneurial power was more, or less, able and willing to deeply influence the people subject to it. It highlights that in the world of lordship there was a disconnect (or at least potentially) between political power and socio-economic domination. Which factors enabled lordships to become pervasive, and which lords, from which regions, were best equipped with these characteristics? Using the influential French historiographical framework as a starting point, the article considers as case studies a set of signorie in several Italian regions. It highlights the differences between the great territorial lordships of the counts of the Kingdom of Sicily, the barons of Rome and the lords of Lombardy, on the one side, and the innumerable knightly lordships at a lower level on the other. The use of pervasiveness helps us to re-conceptualize lordship itself with different criteria.

Subjects’ strategies against lordship in Burgundian and Habsburg Flanders

“…In other words, the 'pervasiveness of lords' was undermined by the accessibility of urban privileges to peasantries. 10 Sandro Carocci coined the term 'pervasiveness' in order to measure how (un)successful lords were in extracting surplus, labour, and obedience from their subjects. Absentee owners of big, powerful estates did not necessarily control their residents more effectively than lesser nobles inhabiting a local domain.…”

“…One of the best and most concise definitions is the following: 'the degree to which lordship intruded, and was capable of, shaping 'land and people' under its control'. 11 To what degree this so-called 'pervasiveness' can be measured through a workable paradigm and method of inquiry remains unresolved. It is however a worthy endeavour, as Wickham stated in 2021, to study (supra)local socioeconomic power relations in order to better understand how communities worked, be it states, cities, or local lordships.…”

Review of periodical literature for 2022: (ii) 1100–1500

“…The impact of lordship on medieval societies saw three contributions. Carocci focuses on developing an understanding of what he terms the ‘pervasiveness’ of lordship, namely the degree to which lords shaped the daily lives of their dependents, using examples from Italy and France. He highlights that this concept is distinct from the powerfulness of lords, as many lords who ruled large territories had little direct influence on the lives of their subjects, while many minor lords intervened heavily in the conditions of the peasantry dwelling on their lands.…”