Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Abbreviations and conventions
- 1 English history and the history of English law 1485–1642
- 2 Courts, lawyers and legal thought under the early Tudors
- 3 The initiatives of the crown and the break from Rome
- 4 Political realities and legal discourse in the later sixteenth century
- 5 The politics of jurisdiction I: the liberty of the subject and the ecclesiastical polity 1560 – c. 1610
- 6 The politics of jurisdiction II: multiple kingdoms and questions about royal authority
- 7 The absoluta potestas of a sovereign and the liberty of the subject: law and political controversy in the 1620s
- 8 The degeneration of civil society into a state of war 1629–1642
- 9 Law and ‘community’
- 10 The aristocracy, the gentry and the rule of law
- 11 Economic and tenurial relationships
- 12 The household and its members
- 13 The person, the community and the state
- 14 Conclusion
- Manuscript bibliography
- Index
- References
10 - The aristocracy, the gentry and the rule of law
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 July 2010
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Abbreviations and conventions
- 1 English history and the history of English law 1485–1642
- 2 Courts, lawyers and legal thought under the early Tudors
- 3 The initiatives of the crown and the break from Rome
- 4 Political realities and legal discourse in the later sixteenth century
- 5 The politics of jurisdiction I: the liberty of the subject and the ecclesiastical polity 1560 – c. 1610
- 6 The politics of jurisdiction II: multiple kingdoms and questions about royal authority
- 7 The absoluta potestas of a sovereign and the liberty of the subject: law and political controversy in the 1620s
- 8 The degeneration of civil society into a state of war 1629–1642
- 9 Law and ‘community’
- 10 The aristocracy, the gentry and the rule of law
- 11 Economic and tenurial relationships
- 12 The household and its members
- 13 The person, the community and the state
- 14 Conclusion
- Manuscript bibliography
- Index
- References
Summary
The problem of the ‘over-mighty’
A simple observation that emerges from the previous survey of early modern franchise jurisdictions is that the landed elite, the aristocracy and gentry, enjoyed surprisingly little power and influence directly as a result of being lords of the manor. Although advanced without reference to questions about land tenure and economic relationships that will be discussed in the next chapter, the point can be illustrated by some striking examples from the fifteenth century. On 30 December 1460, Richard of York, the principal antagonist of King Henry VI in the Wars of the Roses, was slain within the precincts of his manor of Wakefield, evidently unable to depend on support from his tenants, copyholders who had long enjoyed considerable control over their holdings. Similarly, given the nature of the charge that was used at Fountains Abbey at about the same time, it is not surprising that the jury at another Yorkshire manor, Aldborough, presented some of their fellow tenants for riding in support of Richard, the earl of Salisbury and Sir John Neville contrary to proclamations and mandates of King Henry.
It would probably not be technically accurate to describe any period covered by this book as one in which England was simply a collection of noble fiefdoms, and as we shall see, the common law took only limited notice of the status terms associated with either peers of the realm (earl, baron, duke, etc.), or country squires (knight, esquire, gentleman).
Information
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Law, Politics and Society in Early Modern England , pp. 278 - 306Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009
References
, The Power of the Early Tudor Nobility: a Study of the Fourth and Fifth Earls of Shrewsbury (Brighton, 1985), p. 180.Google Scholar
, Society, Politics and Culture: Studies in Early Modern England (Cambridge, 1986).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and , eds., Order and Disorder in Early Modern England (Cambridge, 1985), ‘Introduction’.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, Locality and Polity: a Study of Warwickshire Landed Gentry, 1401–1499 (Cambridge, 1992).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, ‘Law, justice and landowners in late medieval England’, Law and History Review, 1(2) (1983), 205–37CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, ‘Political society and the growth of government in late medieval England’, Past and Present, 138 (1993), 28–57CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, ‘Settlement of disputes by arbitration in fifteenth-century England’, Law and History Review, 2(1) (1984), 21–43CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, ‘From Civilitas to civility: codes of manners in medieval and early modern England’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 6th series, 12 (2002), 267–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, The Townshends and Their World: Gentry, Law and Land in Norfolk, c. 1450–1551 (Oxford, 1992)Google Scholar
, The Governance of England otherwise called the Difference between and Absolute and Limited Monarchy, ed. (Oxford, 1885), ch. 9.Google Scholar
The Tree of Commonwealth: a Treatise Written by Edmund Dudley, ed. (Cambridge, 1948), pp. 35–6, 45.
The Yale Edition of the Complete Works of St Thomas More, vol. ivUtopia, ed. and (New Haven, CT, 1965), pp. 63–5.
Sergeant Thorpe judge of assize for the northern circuit, his charge, as it was delivered to the grand-jury at York assizes the twentieth of March, 1648 … (York, 1649).
, ‘The giving of livery and retaining in Henry VII's reign’, Renaissance and Modern Studies, 18 (1974), 17–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, Village Revolts: Social Protest and Popular Disturbances in England, 1509–1640 (Oxford, 1988).Google Scholar
Cases in the High Court of Chivalry 1634–1640, ed. and (Harleian Society, ns, 18, 2006), p. xii.
, The Justices of the Peace in England, 1558 to 1640: a Later Eirenarcha (Oxford, 1969)Google Scholar
, English Provincial Society from the Reformation to the Revolution: Religion, Politics and Society in Kent, 1500–1640 (Hassocks, 1977)Google Scholar
, Suffolk and the Tudors: Politics and Religion in an English County 1500–1600 (Oxford, 1986).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, ‘Honor, gender and reconciliation in elite culture, 1570–1700’, Journal of British Studies, 46 (2007), 3–27CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, ‘Subordination, solidarity and the limits of popular agency in a Yorkshire valley, c. 1596–1615’, Past and Present, 193 (2006), 41–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, The Radical Face of the Ancient Constitution: St Edward's Laws in Early Modern Political Thought (Cambridge, 2001).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, ‘The judges’ decision on Ship Money, the reaction in Kent', Bulletin Institute of the Historical Research, 57 (1984), 230–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Accessibility standard: Unknown
Why this information is here
This section outlines the accessibility features of this content - including support for screen readers, full keyboard navigation and high-contrast display options. This may not be relevant for you.Accessibility Information
Accessibility compliance for the PDF of this chapter is currently unknown
and may be updated in the future.