Yeoman Gentry Essay

Below the nobility were the gentry. The gentry were gentlemen who were not entirely rich but they were certainly had money. Below them were people called yeomen, these people were farmers who were able to own their own land. Yeomen had an adequate amount of money, but unfortunately they often still had to work alongside their men. A gentlemen did NOT do manual labor. Below the yeoman was most of the population, such as craftsmen, tenant farmers and laborers.

(1) Untitled middle and lower nobility in England in the 16th and 17th centuries. The gentry was an important part of the new nobility. Adapting to the rapid development of capitalist relations in England during the 16th and 17th centuries, the gentry became the foremost champion of capitalism in the English countryside.
During the agrarian upheaval of the 16th and 17th centuries, the gentry increased its landed property as a result ofenclosures and the sale of secularized church property. In order to receive …show more content…
Many politicalfigures were of gentry origin; these included leaders of the parliamentary opposition against the absolutism of the first Stuartsand leaders of the English Civil War (in Russian, the English Bourgeois Revolution of the 17th century)—for example, J.Hampden, J. Pym, and O. Cromwell. The leader of the Levelers, J. Lilburne, was also a member of the gentry. The new nobility became the main ally of the bourgeoisie during the civil war. The war led to a vast increase in the gentry’s landed property; the abolition of the “knightly holding” transformed gentry land into typically bourgeois private property. At the end ofthe 17th century, the gentry split. Its leadership became lords, and some members merged with the urban bourgeoisie.However, the majority maintained the status of lower nobility. They supported the Tory Party and played an important role inthe institutions of local