Robert Brenner's thesis on the transition from feudalism to capitalism -- The prime mover of economic and social development -- Class conflict and the crisis of feudalism -- Insecure property and the origin of capitalism -- The rise of capitalist yeomen and a capitalist aristocracy -- Periodising the origin of capitalism in England -- Orthodox Marxism versus political Marxism -- Economy and society in late medieval Lydd and its region -- An emerging capitalist social-property structure -- Engrossment, enclosure and resistance in the sixteenth century -- Legitimising social transformation: the festival of St. George.