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The edifices built on the Cluniac domains illustrate a variety of seigneurial dwellings, which, because of their monastic context, are often neglected if not ignored, so far as the order of Cluny is concerned. These buildings constitute véritable seigneurial courts at the head of vast agricultural domains. That function, however, does not suffice as a characterization of the variety of their roles : they are also, as the case may be, important résidences or solidly fortified défense posts. The architectural vestiges are particularly important in the Clunisois, at Bézornay, Mazille and Sercy, which justifies three monographs. Useful comparisons can be made with certain preserved parts of the other nearby deaneries. The analysis highlights some strong traits that distinguish thèse buildings from contemporary lay seigneurial dwellings. Furthermore, the sources, sometimes disappointing for the individual history of the sites, provide a good conduit for understanding the institutional and économie context and help disperse the shadows surrounding the Cluniac domanial System, especially the role played by Hugues de Semur. The gathering together of these data gives a composite picture for the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, a period for which much remains to be done before we can have complète view of the rural seigneurial dwelling.

The Royal Armouries possesses two scythe blades of pre-mechanised manufacture, mounted axially on straight hafts to form weapons. An inventory of 1686 lists eighty-one scythe blades at the Tower of London (by 1694 described as booty captured from the Duke of Monmouth’s rebels at Sedgemoor) and the surviving pair was probably among them. The Duke’s shortage of standard-issue equipment made improvisation essential, and the choice of re-hafted scythe blades owed to their widespread, well known and effective use by irregular forces in Britain and Europe since the late Middle Ages. Monmouth’s ‘sithmen’, some hundreds strong, took part in skirmishes and in the battle of Sedgemoor itself. Of interest to the Tower authorities as curiosities and for their propaganda value, the scythe blades were displayed, in diminishing numbers, from the seventeenth until the nineteenth century, and these two until the 1990s. In the future they will be displayed again, representing Monmouth’s rebels and countless others, and a weapon type that deserves a greater level of study and recognition.