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INTRODUCTION
In this thesis I am going to look at changes in the eastern part of the county
of Suffolk in the century after the battle of Hastings. The period has been
determined, not only by the convenience of looking at a complete century, but by the
date of the Norman Conquest and the date of the Cartae Baronum, a document that
provides some useful points of comparison with the evidence from the Domesday
Book of 1086. I want to examine how far these changes form part of, and reflect, a
much wider set of changes involving all Europe and beyond. The area I shall
examine in detail consists of the hundreds of Plomesgate, Blything, Loes, Wilford,
Bishop’s, and the half hundred of Parham (see Maps 1-2, pages 20-21). This
introductory chapter will concern itself with the scope of my enquiry, defining more
closely the changes I shall be looking at. It will also discuss the choice of region and
finally it will look at the primary sources I have used. First of all, however, I want to
examine the wider context for the changes in England and in Suffolk and
particularly that suggested by Robert Bartlett’s book, The Making of Europe. In this
stimulating book, Bartlett argues that between 950 and 1350 similar ideas, values
and systems spread from a Frankish heartland to other parts of Europe and beyond
— in other words, producing a cultural homogenisation, primarily in the areas we
regard as Europe. He also argues that “Frankish” aristocratic migration played a very
considerable role in this, and that the Norman Conquest was part of this process.
Of course, historians have long recognized the importance of the changes
that occurred in Europe between the tenth and the thirteenth centuries, and the
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