Most books on the Norman Conquest concentrate on the conquerors, the Norman settlers who became the ancestors of the medieval English baronage: the English experience tends to be confined to works on economic or social history, which deal with the peasantry and the development of villeinage, and thus project a picture of Norman lords and English serfs.

This book seeks to present a subtler but more accurate view by examining the more truly representative experience of the lesser lords and landowners among the English, who survived the Conquest and settlement, adapted to foreign customs and, in the process, preserved much of the native tradition and culture.