The Origins of the English Gentry

ISBN-13: 9780521826730 / Angielski / Twarda / 2003 / 348 str.

Peter Coss; Lyndal Roper

Opis

Although the gentry played a central role in medieval England, this study is the first sustained exploration of its origins and development between the mid-thirteenth and the mid-fourteenth century. Arguing against views which see the gentry as formed or created earlier, the text investigates as well the relationship between lesser landowners and the Angevin state; the transformation of knighthood; and the role of lesser landowners in society and politics.

Recenzje

'This is a scholarly, thought-provoking, and wide-ranging book, which includes engaging discussions of the use of heraldry and the role of parliament. Although it focuses upon the Midlands, it will be of value to all historians of medieval society.' Southern History Society

Spis treści

List of illustrations; Preface; 1. The formation of the English gentry; 2. The roots of the English gentry; 3. The Angevin legacy: knights as jurors and as agents of the state in the reign of Henry III; 4. The crisis of the knightly class revisited; 5. Knights in politics: minor landowners and the state in the reign of Henry III; 6. Knighthood, justice and the early Edwardian polity; 7. The explosion of commissions and its consequences; 8. Identity and the gentry; 9. Knights, esquires and the origins of social gradation in England; 10. Crystallisation: the emergence of the gentry; Appendices; Bibliography; Index.