page_title: English society
section_title: Late medieval society
hierarchical_section_title: English society / Late medieval society
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Darstellung der mittelalterlichen drei Ständeordnung – Redner „jene die beten“ (Klerus), Krieger „jene die kämpfen“ (Rittertum) und Arbeiter „jene die arbeiten“ (einfacher Mann aus dem Volke: Arbeiter, Bauer, Kleinbürger); Buchillustration Frankreich XIII. Jahrhundert. English: An inhabited initial from a 13th-century French text representing the tripartite social order of the Middle Ages: the ōrātōrēs (those who pray&#160;– clerics), bellātōrēs (those who fight&#160;– knights, that is, the nobility), and labōrātōrēs (those who work&#160;– peasants and members of the lower middle class). Русский: Духовенство, рыцарство и крестьянство. Миниатюра из «Книги здоровья» Альдобрандино ди Сиена. Франция, XIII в. Британская библиотека, Лондон.
context_page_description: English society comprises the group behaviour of the English people, and of collective social interactions, organisation and political attitudes in England. The social history of England evidences many social and societal changes over the history of England, from Anglo-Saxon England to the contemporary forces upon the Western world. These major social changes have both internally and in its relationship with other nations. The themes of social history include demographic history, labour history and the working class, women's history, family, the history of education in England, rural and agricultural history, urban history and industrialisation.
context_section_description: After the Norman conquest of England in 1066, society seemed fixed and unchanging for several centuries, but gradual and significant changes were still taking place, the exact nature of which would not be appreciated until much later. The Norman lords spoke Norman French, and in order to work for them or gain advantage, the English had to use the Anglo-Norman language that developed in England. This became a necessary administrative and literary language (see Anglo-Norman literature), but despite this the English language was not supplanted, and after gaining much in grammar and vocabulary began in turn to replace the language of the rulers. At the same time the population of England more than doubled between Domesday and the end of the 13th century, and this growth was not checked by the almost continual foreign warfare, crusades and occasional civil anarchy.
  Feudalism, although historians debate the term, is often used to describe medieval society. Basically stated, a lord owns land or a fief which he allows vassals to work in return for their military service. The vast majority of the people were peasants who would work on the vassal's fiefs. This or a similar system was the basis of later medieval society. It probably existed in some form in England before the Norman conquest, but the Normans did much to institute it, either replacing existing lords or by becoming 'overlords' above now-demoted lords. A wealth of information on these social structures can be drawn from the best early surveys of its type, the Domesday Book.
caption: The medieval  English saw their economy as comprising three groups – the clergy, who prayed; the knights, who fought; and the peasants, who worked the land. The monasteries and the nobility owned most of the land, but some rich peasants also owned land.
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