A historiografia sobre as leis florestais do medievo inglês

(séc. XI – XIII)

Abstract

Forest Law is yet a poorly explored theme, although appearing in some historical synthesis that have as a starting point the Norman Conquest. Having as a goal explain the Conquest, historians identify Forest Law as an important turning point, since its application is considered as an imported custom from Normandy imposed on the English. For the Angevin period, historians tend to consider Forest Law as a source of income to the crown, as well as a strategic tool to forge alliances and political negotiations between the monarch and the aristocracy. By that, historians usually see in the creation of English Forest Law the Norman authoritarian aspect, specially when it is compared with the Anglo-Saxon kinship. What is proposed here is a rearrange of the way that Forest Law is studied, less a Norman imposition and more as a consensus between the powerful.