Aristocratic Landscape: The Spatial Ideology of the Medieval Aristocracy

This book is a comparative study of how the aristocracy in Western Europe organised space and landscape. It involves examples from Britain, France, Germany and Scandinavia and is concentrated to the period c. 800-1500. The overall aim is to search after a common aristocratic spatial ideology and to explain its meaning and changes through time. Many scholars have studied the medieval aristocracy and the chivalrous culture, but the present study is the first that tries to connect this culture with the landscape. The starting point is a comparative study of residences in Småland, Sweden and Norfolk, England.