The Origins of the English Gentry

The gentry played a central role in medieval England, yet this is the first sustained attempt to explore its origins and to account for its contours and peculiarities between the mid-thirteenth and the mid-fourteenth century. The book deals with the deep roots of the gentry, but argues against views which see the gentry as formed or created earlier. It investigates also the relationship between lesser landowners and the Angevin state, the transformation of knighthood, and the role of lesser landowners in the society and politics of Edwardian England.