Origin of the term
editDefinition and ranks
editAccording to Peter Coss, historians have often relied on "common sense" to decide who belonged.[1] Nevertheless, the gentry remains an important concept, as expressed by historian G. E. Mingay:[2]
despite the lack of an agreed definition, 'the gentry' remains an indispensable term; it is one of those vastly convenient portmanteau expressions which historians are obliged to employ in formulating the broad generalisations that make up the main strands of the historical fabric. It is the more indispensable since it was so widely used by statesmen and writers of the past. 'The gentry' was a convenient symbol for them, too, and was evidently meaningful to their audiences.
Sir John Fastolf was a 15th-century knight who was richer than some peers.[3]
History
editMedieval origins
editSome historians use the term gentry to describe the lesser aristocracy of the Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman periods. For example, David Carpenter describes thegns as "the country gentry of Anglo-Saxon England".[4] Other historians believe the gentry did not exist until the 13th century.[5]
The Statute Concerning Diet and Apparel, a 1363 sumptuary law, specifically recognised esquires as gentle. The same legislation references other people who possessed gentility: "esquires and all manner of gentle men below the estate of knight".[6]
Citations
edit- ^ Coss 2003, pp. 2–3.
- ^ Mingay 1976, p. 1.
- ^ Coss 2003, p. 5.
- ^ Carpenter 2003, p. 66 quoted in Huscroft 2016, pp. 28–29.
- ^ Green 2017, p. 103.
- ^ Coss 2003, p. 3.
References
edit- Beckett, John (2015). "Gentry". In Crowcroft, Robert; Cannon, John (eds.). The Oxford Companion to British History (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780191757150.
- Carpenter, David (2003). The Struggle for Mastery: Britain 1066–1284. Penguin History of Britain. Penguin Books. ISBN 0140148248.
- Coss, Peter (2003). The Origins of the English Gentry. Past and Present Publications. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511522383. ISBN 9780511522383.
- Green, Judith A. (2017). Forging the Kingdom: Power in English Society, 973–1189. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521193597.
- Heal, Felicity; Holmes, Clive (1994). The Gentry in England and Wales, 1500-1700. Stanford University Press. ISBN 9780804724487.
- Horrox, Rosemary (1988). "The Urban Gentry in the Fifteenth Century". In Thomson, J. A. F. (ed.). Towns and Townspeople in the Fifteenth Century. Alan Sutton. pp. 22–44. ISBN 9780862994693.
- Huscroft, Richard (2016). Ruling England, 1042-1217 (2nd ed.). Routledge. ISBN 978-1138786554.
- Mingay, G. E. (1976). The Gentry: The Rise and Fall of a Ruling Class. Themes in British Social History. New York: Longman. ISBN 0582484030.