A male member of the nobility became fully adult when he came into the possession of property. He then acquired authority over lands and people, protecting them from attack, maintaining order, and settling disputes. (See “Living in the Past: Life in an English Castle.”) With this authority went responsibility. In the words of Honorius of Autun:
Soldiers: You are the arm of the Church, because you should defend it against its enemies. Your duty is to aid the oppressed, to restrain yourself from rapine and fornication, to repress those who impugn the Church with evil acts, and to resist those who are rebels against priests. Performing such a service, you will obtain the most splendid of benefices from the greatest of Kings.5
Nobles rarely lived up to this ideal, however, and there are countless examples of nobles’ stealing church lands instead of defending them, tyrannizing the oppressed rather than aiding them, and regularly engaging in “rapine and fornication” rather than resisting them.
Women played a large and important role in the functioning of the estate. They were responsible for the practical management of the household’s “inner economy” — cooking, brewing, spinning, weaving, caring for yard animals. When the lord was away for long periods, the women frequently managed the herds, barns, granaries, and outlying fields as well. Often the responsibilities of the estate fell to them permanently, as the number of men slain in medieval warfare ran high.
Throughout the High Middle Ages, fighting remained the dominant feature of the noble lifestyle. The church’s preaching and condemnations reduced but did not stop violence, and the military values of the nobles’ social class encouraged petty warfare and disorder. The nobility thus represented a constant source of trouble for the monarchy.