He was interested in the power structures of society, both in their institutional and their ideological dimensions. He was interested, too, in the dynamics of medieval society and came to the conclusion that the struggle for feudal rent was the “prime mover” which governed much of its history.An underlying interest in towns finally surfaced to become the focus of the last great productive phase of his career. It bore fruit in his monograph English and French Towns in Feudal Society: a comparative study (1992). He had already published, in the early 1980s, a quite remarkable series of essays devoted to the history of small market towns.In these essays – many of which appear in his 1985 collection, Class Conflict and the Crisis of Feudalism – small-town life is vividly reconstructed. Just as we were earlier introduced to individual peasants, so we now enter the lives and struggles of individual townspeople whilst at the same time learning to appreciate the role of the small town in the feudal world It is a line of inquiry which continues to flourish.

Not for the first time Hilton had turned to a neglected area of historical study with enormously beneficial consequences.Hilton had a broad view of what constituted historical sources. The sensitive use of creative literature, for example, was a feature of his work from his very first essay, entitled “A Thirteenth-Century Poem on Disputed Villein Services”, published in English Historical Review in 1941. His treatment of the 14th-century poem Winner and Waster in a 1962 essay on rent capital formation in feudal society was masterly and won much acclaim. Perhaps his most enduring legacy in this field was the debate on the origins and audience of the ballads of Robin Hood which he inaugurated in Past and Present in 1958, and which has been running intermittently ever since. The latest contribution appeared in Past and Present only last year.Rodney Hilton was a formidable scholar, with a remarkable courage and steadfastness that matched his intellect and immense talents.

He was fiercely loyal, both to his pupils and friends and to the causes he passionately believed in, high on the list of which was academic freedom. He was a charismatic figure with an extraordinary vitality and zest for life.Hilton strongly believed that the historical scholarly enterprise was a force for enlightenment and human progress He also viewed it as a collective enterprise. Academic history could never be advanced by bland consensus, by the constant repetition of agreed viewpoints and the piling of fact upon fact, but only by rigorous debate conducted, preferably, in a convivial atmosphere He loved good food and wine; above all, he loved fellowship. The seminar and the dinner party were opportunities equally for the exchange of ideas and for conviviality.He was married to a fellow medievalist, Jean Birrell.