Feudal geography and lordship models in a late medieval province of Southern Italy: the Terra d’Otranto

The essay examines the lordship models in a province of the Kingdom of Naples (XIII-XV cent.): the Terra d’Otranto. During this period the noble domains underwent continuous transformations, caused by dynastic conflicts and the system of transmission of feudal property, which produced a widespread fragmentation. In this province, as elsewhere, there were basically two types of lordship, coexisting and interacting.There were the “territorial” lordships, more or less extensive, controlled by powerful dynasties and born from the amalgamation of various feudal complexes, divided into suffeudi; and there were the “personal” lordships (secular or ecclesiastical), exercised by custom on groups of peasant families subject to performance and obligations, even hereditary, more or less burdensome.