Locality and Polity A Study of Warickshire Landed Society, 1401}}}1499 [Hardcover]

This is a comprehensive study of minor landowners - the gentry - in one county in fifteenth-century England.This is a comprehensive study of minor landowners - the gentry - in one county in fifteenth-century England. In common with other local studies of the later Middle Ages, it builds upon the seminal work of K. B. McFarlane, looking at the political and social world in the localities from which the nobles drew their power.This is a comprehensive study of minor landowners - the gentry - in one county in fifteenth-century England. In common with other local studies of the later Middle Ages, it builds upon the seminal work of K. B. McFarlane, looking at the political and social world in the localities from which the nobles drew their power.This is a comprehensive study of minor landowners--the gentry--in one county of fifteenth-century England. It looks at all aspects of their lives, including marriage, the family, how they ran their estates and how they made friends and enemies, in an often very turbulent century that saw the reigns of the three Lancastrian kings (Henry IV, Henry V, and Henry VI), the Yorkist Edward IV, Edward V and Richard III, the first Tudor, Henry VII, and the Wars of the Roses.List of figures and tables; Preface; List of abbreviations; Note on text; 1. Introduction; Part I. Structural: 2. Geography, economy and regional identity; 3. Who were the gentry?; 4. Social mobility and the creation of estates; 5. The exploitation of estates; 6. Expenditure and dispersal; 7. Conclusions: land, family and lineage; 8. The local officers; Part II. Chronological: 9. Social and political networks 140150; 10. Warwickshire under Richard Beauchamp: 140139; 11. The interregnum: 143949; 12. The period crisis I: Warwickshire under the Kingmaker: 144961; 13. The period of crisis II: Warwickshire under the Kingmaker and the Duke of Clarence: 146178; 14. The period of crisis III: Warwickshire under the crown: 147885; 15. The period of crisis IV. Warwickshire unlS$