My research confronts inequity by studying state power, land-lording, violence, and the agency of labourers. To this end, I examine subaltern groups (peasants and the urban poor) in the medieval world and unpick discourses of power, how relations of exploitation were and are legitimized, and local vs. supra-local experiences of state control. Concentrating on medieval England, c. 900-1200 CE, my research counters the dominance of elite sources which overshadow the historical record to find the voices of labourers who actively shaped their local societies. These subaltern experiences are put into conversation with the processes of exclusion which marginalize communities of labourers today, seeking to problematise entrenched historiographical and political narratives.