McPherson: The Battle of Golden Spurs

The political and social order of the Middle Ages was feudalism. Land ownership was the pinnacle of wealth and power, and from it was derived, at least for men, the obligation of service to a liege lord as a knight in battle. Not even high birth could replace the importance of land.

Without land, a human being was nothing, and many men flocked to the standard of a would-be conqueror. Success would mean a grant of land. When William of Normandy set out to take the kingdom of England from Harold Godwinson, for example, thousands joined his army. The defeat of Harold at Hastings meant confiscation of the finest estates in the kingdom, offered to faithful followers of the new king.

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