Feudal Order [antikvár]

chapter i INTRODUCTORY For several centuries after the fifth-century settlement of Germanic peoples, in parts of Britain and other former Roman provinces in Europe, a distinctive process of historical development took place. This brought into being a social order and civilisation which is worth study for its own sake and because it has played a major part in shaping the history of modern Europe. The object of this book is to outline this process of growth as it happened in England so that its place in history can be understood in a preliminary way by non-specialist readers. Perhaps the limitations of treatment imposed by this purpose can best be described by an analogy. A traveller who proposes to visit an unknown country does well to consult a map—a concentrated statement of elementary detail which will help him to find his way about intelligently and discover for himself the rich variety of the country and the people. An. old map however decorative is of little use; neither is a map which shows only the chief towns, not rivers and mountains, roads and railways. Maps made for technicians are, as yet, outside his purpose or comprehension. Similarly in setting up landmarks for the preliminary study of a past historical epoch, the intelligent reader needs a concentrated synthesis of elementary detail and some general impressions which will indicate the many-sided character of the historical process in question and provide materia] for thinking, or beginning to think, about how and why it occurred and what relation it had to past and future epochs. A conventional little out-of-date summary of political history is of no use; learned monographs and articles are best read after the bare essentials of the subject and some of the primary problems which it raises, have been indicated. The first, rather tiresome problem is the use of the word 1