This original study examines how members of the English medieval nobility and their families fell, usually dramatically and often violently, from position and power in the period 1075-1455. It also considers what those who survived this fall did while out of favour and what some families did to attempt to revive their fortunes. For those noble dynasties that managed to survive such downturns, there was usually an attempt to return to position, if not power – though the road was never easy and, this book argues, increasingly involved sustained efforts by wives, mothers and daughters.

Based on extensive research in chronicle, administrative, artistic and other interdisciplinary sources, Falling from grace spans almost four centuries, from the Earls’ Revolt of 1075 to the beginning of the Wars of the Roses, and will be of considerable interest to both academic and general audiences.