Read Online The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century by Ian Mortimer - Free Book Online
Authors: Ian Mortimer
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retinues at their own expense for forty dayseach year. In effect, however, those who are willing to serve the king do so for as long as they are required and are compensated for their expenditure accordingly.
Lordly status loosely correlates with income. In theory each earl should receive at least £1,000 from his estates. Most have between £700 and £3,000. The richest is Thomas of Lancaster, who has five earldoms and an income of about £11,000 in 1311. This is exceeded by only two people over the whole century. Second on the fourteenth-century “Rich List” is Queen Isabella, who allocates to herself 20,000 marks (£13,333) per year in 1327-30. First place goes to John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, whose gross income from his English and Welsh estates in 1394-95 is in the region of £12,000, in addition to a pension from Castile of about £6,600. 10 Most barons have an income of between £300 and £700, but in a few exceptional cases—Lord Berkeley, for instance—a baron may receive as much as £1,300 per year.
The third tier in the feudal hierarchy is made up of lords of manors held
indirectly
from the king—that is to say, held by local lords from the tenants-in-chief. These local lords do not receive a personal summons to attend parliaments, although they may be elected to represent their country as “knights of the shire.” They are not “lords” in the sense of having a baronial title but merely lords over their manorial tenants. In theory all of them with an annual income of £40 or more—about eleven hundred men—should be dubbed knights by the king. Those who are not are called “esquires” (provided they are entitled to bear coats of arms, due to their descent from a knight; otherwise they are just “gentlemen”).
The foregoing does not account for all manorial lords. Many lordships are in the hands of clergymen or institutions, such as monasteries or university colleges. Many old manors have been divided between co-heiresses, and so a “lord of the manor” might be the holder of just a quarter of a knight’s fee, perhaps less than a thousand acres, yielding as little as £5 per year. There are about ten thousand men who fall into this category of local gentry, with incomes of £5 to £40 per year. 11 To what extent they should be considered among “those who fight” is open to debate. Nevertheless, their legal status and family connections give them influence among their peers and power over their tenants and bondmen, so do not be fooled by their lack of wealth into thinking they are of little consequence.
The Social Hierarchy
Laity (landed and rural men)
Laity (urban)
Clergy
Dukes
Archbishops
Earls
Bishops
Abbots summoned to Parliament, 12 the prior of the Hospitallers, and the Master of the Templars (to 1308)
Barons
Abbots of lesser abbeys
Priors of the larger priories, and priors of the mendicant orders (friars)
Knights
Mayors of cities and incorporated towns
Canons of cathedrals, archdeacons, and priors of lesser priories
Esquires and gentlemen with £200 or more income from land
The richest merchants, with more than £1,000 capital, and aldermen of cities and incorporated towns
Other higher clergy and wealthy rectors (normally of multiple parishes)
Esquires and gentlemen with £100 income from land
Middling merchants with £500 capital or more
Rectors of single parishes
Franklins/yeomen
Merchants with less than £500 capital; some professionals (e.g. physicians, lawyers, and a few master masons/ master carpenters)
Vicars of parishes
Husbandmen (freemen)
Shopkeepers, local traders, skilled workers, and freemen of towns
Chaplains, friars, and minor clergy
Villeins (unfree)
Laborers
Hermits
Domestic servants
Domestic servants
Beggars
Those Who Pray
The hierarchy of the English clergy is similar to that of the secular lords. There are spiritual noblemen—archbishops, bishops, and the abbots of the major religious houses—and subordinate levels: archdeacons, deans, canons, and the
Lordly status loosely correlates with income. In theory each earl should receive at least £1,000 from his estates. Most have between £700 and £3,000. The richest is Thomas of Lancaster, who has five earldoms and an income of about £11,000 in 1311. This is exceeded by only two people over the whole century. Second on the fourteenth-century “Rich List” is Queen Isabella, who allocates to herself 20,000 marks (£13,333) per year in 1327-30. First place goes to John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, whose gross income from his English and Welsh estates in 1394-95 is in the region of £12,000, in addition to a pension from Castile of about £6,600. 10 Most barons have an income of between £300 and £700, but in a few exceptional cases—Lord Berkeley, for instance—a baron may receive as much as £1,300 per year.
The third tier in the feudal hierarchy is made up of lords of manors held
indirectly
from the king—that is to say, held by local lords from the tenants-in-chief. These local lords do not receive a personal summons to attend parliaments, although they may be elected to represent their country as “knights of the shire.” They are not “lords” in the sense of having a baronial title but merely lords over their manorial tenants. In theory all of them with an annual income of £40 or more—about eleven hundred men—should be dubbed knights by the king. Those who are not are called “esquires” (provided they are entitled to bear coats of arms, due to their descent from a knight; otherwise they are just “gentlemen”).
The foregoing does not account for all manorial lords. Many lordships are in the hands of clergymen or institutions, such as monasteries or university colleges. Many old manors have been divided between co-heiresses, and so a “lord of the manor” might be the holder of just a quarter of a knight’s fee, perhaps less than a thousand acres, yielding as little as £5 per year. There are about ten thousand men who fall into this category of local gentry, with incomes of £5 to £40 per year. 11 To what extent they should be considered among “those who fight” is open to debate. Nevertheless, their legal status and family connections give them influence among their peers and power over their tenants and bondmen, so do not be fooled by their lack of wealth into thinking they are of little consequence.
The Social Hierarchy
Laity (landed and rural men)
Laity (urban)
Clergy
Dukes
Archbishops
Earls
Bishops
Abbots summoned to Parliament, 12 the prior of the Hospitallers, and the Master of the Templars (to 1308)
Barons
Abbots of lesser abbeys
Priors of the larger priories, and priors of the mendicant orders (friars)
Knights
Mayors of cities and incorporated towns
Canons of cathedrals, archdeacons, and priors of lesser priories
Esquires and gentlemen with £200 or more income from land
The richest merchants, with more than £1,000 capital, and aldermen of cities and incorporated towns
Other higher clergy and wealthy rectors (normally of multiple parishes)
Esquires and gentlemen with £100 income from land
Middling merchants with £500 capital or more
Rectors of single parishes
Franklins/yeomen
Merchants with less than £500 capital; some professionals (e.g. physicians, lawyers, and a few master masons/ master carpenters)
Vicars of parishes
Husbandmen (freemen)
Shopkeepers, local traders, skilled workers, and freemen of towns
Chaplains, friars, and minor clergy
Villeins (unfree)
Laborers
Hermits
Domestic servants
Domestic servants
Beggars
Those Who Pray
The hierarchy of the English clergy is similar to that of the secular lords. There are spiritual noblemen—archbishops, bishops, and the abbots of the major religious houses—and subordinate levels: archdeacons, deans, canons, and the
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