Feudal law: a partially neglected theme in post-medieval political thought

The late J.G.A. Pocock’s contribution to the history of political thought was immense, but some elements remain to be fully tapped. While the idea of the ‘ancient constitution’ has become a term of art, less attention has been paid to the feudal law. Yet feudal jurisprudence was a central feature of post-medieval political argument; indeed, some medieval historians have identified the reification of the feudal law as an early modern phenomenon. Nor did the feudal law carry all the pejorative associations which it bears in the present. Early modern commentators recognised both the oppressive and the more positive associations of feudalism, not least with constitutional government and fragmented authority. Anti-feudalist discourse was a prominent feature during the Enlightenment, but a sensitive appreciation of the historic mutations in feudal tenures also underpinned new developments in social theory. Debates over whether feudalism had been an exclusively European phenomenon or was to be found more generally across Eurasia brought feudal institutions into focus as defining elements in European distinctiveness. Feudal jurisprudence played a significant role too in the ways contemporaries understood state sovereignty and international relations. Surprisingly, perhaps, feudalism has become an unexpectedly prominent presence in American historiography.