Exactly how cities extended their power over the countryside in the late twelfth century and later has often been studied, but above all from the standpoint of the cities themselves. How people in the countryside, overwhelmingly peasant cultivators, reacted, has been studied less often; their reactions have been taken for granted. This is partly because peasant views are hard to identify; but after c.1170, we find documentation of witnessing in court cases and arbitrations in which (male) peasants speak, sometimes at length. These witness statements thus tell us about peasant perceptions in a way that no other sources do. This lecture will take two important sets of these witness statements, for Piacenza in 1184 and Rome in 1201, as guides to what country-dwellers thought of city power.

Prof. Chris Wickham is former Professor at Oxford and Birmingham and former Director at the British School at Rome. In addition, he is author of 16 books on Italy and Europe including Framing the early middle ages, 2005; Roma medievale, 2013; The donkey and the boat, 2023; L’asino e il battello, 2024.

The lecture will be accessible in person and online, registering at the link above.