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This article is about the social concept of gentry. For other uses, see Gentry (disambiguation).

Gentry (origin Old French genterie, from gentil ‘high-born, noble’) denotes “well-born and well-bred people” of high social class, especially in the past. .[1], [2]

Gentry in it's widest connotation refers to people of good social position connected to the rural land estates (see Manorialism) including various ranks of nobility, clerical upper crust and "gentle" families of long descent who never obtained official rights to bear a coat of arms. In England the term often refers to the social class of the landed aristocracy or to the minor aristocracy (see landed gentry), and whose income derives from their large landholdings[3] and thus designates the more narrow definition. The idea of "gentry" in the continental sense of noblesse is extinct in England, and is likely to remain so, in spite of the efforts of certain enthusiasts to revive it (see A. C. Fox-Davies, Armorial Families, Edinburgh, 1895, The right to bear arms, 1900).

The fundamental social cleavage in most parts of Europe in the Middle Ages was between the nobiles, i.e. the tenants in chivalry, whether counts, barons, knights, esquires or franklins, and the ignobiles, i.e. the villeins, citizens and burgesses; and between the most powerful noble and the humblest franklin there was, until the 15th century, no "separate class of gentlemen". The division in to nobiles and ignobiles in smaller regions of Europe in the Middle Ages, such as Sweden (incl. the province of Finland) was less exact due to a more rudimentary feudal order. As such the difference in the late middle ages between the medieval Swedish nobility and the wealthier strata of the peasantry was small. After the reformation the intermingling between the nobel class and the often hereditary clerical upper class became distinctive feature in several Nordic countries.

Historical definition

The Indo-European Caste System

Main article: Caste

The Indo-Europeans who settled Europe, Western Asia and the Indian Sub-Continent conceived their societies to be ordered (not divided) in a tripartite fashion, the three parts being castes [4]. Castes came to be further divided, perhaps as a result of greater specialisation.

The 'classic' formulation of the caste system as largely described by Georges Dumézil was that of a priestly or religiously occupied caste, a warrior caste, and a worker caste. This caste system can be seen to be that which flourished on the Indian Sub-Continent and amongst the Italic peoples. However, an alternative version of the system developed later to supplant it, that of Nobles, Bourgeois and Peasants, the last two being a split of the original worker caste, and the warrior and priestly function being subsumed into all three castes to a degree. This alternative caste formulation may have existed side-by-side in proto-Indo-European society as the Edda does not seem to hold to the 'classic' formulation.

In Europe the system came to be known as that of Three Estates, in England the Three Orders.

Examples of the Indo-European Castes:

Kings were born out of the warrior or noble class.

The end of the Caste system and its replacement by the Class system

Main article: Class society
Those Who Pray (oratores')', Work (laboratores), and Fight (bellatores)

The revolutions in British America and France and then elsewhere directly challenged Indo-European culture and swept away the native caste system and replaced it with a system based on class. But it is noticeable that in many countries the class system then followed a tripartite division like the caste system: for example the upper, middle and lower class used in Britain and the Dreiklassen system in Germany.

The two principal estates of the realm

The Gentry is formed on the bases of the medieval societies' two higher estates of the Estates of the realm, nobility and clergy both exempted from tax. Subsequent "gentle" families of long descent who never obtained official rights to bear a coat of arms was also admitted to the rural upper class society i.e. gentry.

The First Estate comprised the entire clergy, traditionally divided into "higher" and "lower" clergy. Although there was is no formal demarcation between the two categories, the upper clergy were, effectively, clerical nobility, from the families of the Second Estate or occasionally, as the career of Cardinal Wolsey shows, from more humble backgrounds.

The Second Estate is the nobility. Being wealthy or influential does not automatically make one a noble, nor are all nobles wealthy and influential (aristocratic families have lost their fortunes in various ways, and the concept of the 'poor nobleman' is almost as old as nobility itself). Countries without a feudal tradition do not have a nobility as such.

Estates of the realm as an expression of the traditional Social stratification

The nobility of a person might be either inherited or earned. Nobility in its most general and strict sense is an acknowledged preeminence that is hereditary: i.e., legitimate descendants (or all male descendants, in some societies) of nobles are nobles, unless explicitly stripped of the privilege. The terms aristocrat and aristocracy are a less formal means to refer to persons belonging to this social milieu.

Historically in some cultures, members of an upper class often did not have to work for a living, as they were supported by earned or inherited investments (often real estate), although members of the upper class may have had less actual money than merchants. Upper-class status commonly derived from the social position of one's family and not from one's own achievements or wealth. Much of the population that comprised the upper class consisted of aristocrats, ruling families, titled people, and religious hierarchs. These people were usually born into their status and historically there was not much movement across class boundaries. This is to say that it was much harder for an individual to move up in class simply because of the structure of society. In many countries the term "upper class" was intimately associated with hereditary land ownership and titles. Political power was often in the hands of the landowners in many pre-industrial societies (which was one of the causes of the French Revolution), despite there being no legal barriers to land ownership for other social classes. Power began to shift from upper-class landed families to the general population in the early modern age, leading to marital alliances between the two groups, providing the foundation for the modern upper classes in the West. Upper-class landowners in Europe were often also members of the titled nobility, though not necessarily: the prevalence of titles of nobility varied widely from country to country. Some upper classes were almost entirely untitled, for example, the Szlachta of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Before the Age of Absolutism institutions, such as churches, legislatures, or social elites.[5] restrained monarchical power. Absolutism was characterized by the ending of feudal partitioning, consolidation of power with the monarch, rise of state, rise of professional standing armies, professional bureaucracies, the codification of state laws, and the rise of ideologies that justify the absolutist monarchy. Hence Absolutism was made possible by new innovations and charactarized as a phenomena of the Early modern Europe, rather that of the Middle Ages where the clergy and noblity counterbalanced as a result of mutual rivarly.


The gentries

Europe

German

Main article: German nobility

In Germany, nobility and titles pertaining to it were bestowed on a person by higher sovereigns and then passed down through legitimate children of a nobleman. Alternatively, unlike men, women could legally become members of nobility by marrying a noble, although they could not pass it on. Nobility and titles (except for most reigning titles) were always inherited equally by all legitimate descendants of a nobleman.

Divisions of nobility in Germany

  • Uradel (ancient nobility): Nobility that dates back to at least the 1500s, and originates from leadership positions during the Migration Period. This contrasts with:
  • Briefadel (patent nobility): Nobility by letters patent. The first known such document is from September 30, 1360 for Wyker Frosch in Mainz.
  • Hochadel (high nobility): Nobility that was sovereign or had a high degree of sovereignty. This contrasts with:
  • Niederer Adel (lower nobility): Nobility that had a lower degree of sovereignty.

Junker

Main article: Junker

Junker in German means "young lord", and is understood as country squire. It is probably derived from the German words Junger Herr, or Young Lord. As part of the nobility, many Junker families have particles such as "von" or "zu" before their family names. In the Middle Ages, a Junker was simply a lesser noble, often poor and politically insignificant. Over the centuries, they rose from disreputable captains of mercenary cutthroats to influential commanders and landowners in the 19th century, especially in the Kingdom of Prussia.

Being the bulwark of Hohenzollern Prussia, the Junkers controlled the Prussian Army, leading in political influence and social status, and owning immense estates, especially in the north-eastern half of Germany (Brandenburg, Mecklenburg, Pomerania, East Prussia, Saxony, Silesia).[6]

Otto von Bismarck wearing a cuirassier officers' metal Pickelhaube.
Emperor William II reviews Prussian troops, by Carl Röchling.

They dominated all the higher civil offices and officer corps. Supporting monarchism and military traditions, they were often reactionary and protectionist; they were often anti-liberal, siding with the conservative monarchist forces during the Revolution of 1848. Their political interests were served by the German Conservative Party in the Reichstag and the extraparliamentary Agrarian League. This political class held tremendous power over the industrial classes and the government. When Chancellor Caprivi reduced the protective duties on imports of grain, these landed magnates demanded and obtained his dismissal; and in 1902, they brought about a restoration of such duties on foodstuffs as would keep the prices of their own products at a high level.

As landed aristocrats, the Junkers owned most of the arable land in the Prussian and eastern German states. This was in contrast to the Catholic southern States such as Bavaria, Württemberg or Baden, where land was owned by small farms, or the mixed agriculture of the western states like Hesse or Westphalia. This gave the Junkers a virtual monopoly on all agriculture in the German states east of the Elbe river.

The German statesman Otto von Bismarck was a noted Junker, as were President Paul von Hindenburg and Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt.


Dutch

Jonkheer

Main article: Jonkheer

Jonkheer or "Jonkvrouw" is literally translated as "young lord" or "young lady", or "esquire". In medieval times such a person was a young and unmarried son or daughter of a high ranking knight or nobleman. Many noble families could not support all their sons to become a knight because of the expensive equipment. So the eldest son of a knight was a young lord and his brothers remain as esquires. However, in the low countries (and other parts of continental Europe) only the head of most noble families did and does carry a title and inheritability of it is via the male lineage. This resulted therefore that most of the nobility was and is nowadays untitled in the Netherlands and Belgium. Jonkheer, or its female equivalent jonkvrouw developed therefore quite early into a different but general meaning, i.e., an honorific to show that someone does belong to the nobility, but does not possess a title. The abbreviation jhr., or jkvr. for women, is placed in front of the name (preceding academic, but not state titles).

British

Main articles: British nobility and landed gentry

The British upper classes consist of two entities, the peerage and landed gentry; any male member of either may regard himself as a gentleman, in a special sense mutually understood between hereditary members of the class which will often exclude life peers. In the British peerage, only the senior family member (typically the oldest son) inherits a substantive title (duke, marquess, earl, viscount, baron); these are referred to as peers or lords. The rest of the nobility is referred as landed gentry (abbreviation, gentry), and with the exceptions of the baronet, which is a title akin to a hereditary knighthood, and of those that are knighted (for life), being called Sir X Y, they bear no titles apart from the qualifications of esquire or gentleman (which are ranks recognised in law, although now without any legal consequence).

Titles, while often considered central to the upper class, are not strictly so. Both Captain Mark Phillips and Vice Admiral Timothy Laurence, the respective first and second husbands of HRH The Princess Anne lacked any rank of peerage, yet could scarcely be considered to be anything other than upper class. The same is true of Francis Fulford, who memorably featured in Channel 4's documentary The F***ing Fulfords and whose family has owned estates in Devon for over 800 years. In fact the Fulfords represent the group that makes up the largest component of the upper class: the landed gentry.

Swedish

Main article: Swedish nobility

The Swedish nobility (Adeln) were historically a legally privileged class in Sweden, part of the so-called frälse (a classification defined by tax exemptions and representation in the diet that also applied to clergy).

Generally, the nobility grew from wealthier or more powerful members of the peasantry, those who were capable of assigning work or wealth to provide the requisite cavalrymen. In Sweden, there never existed outright serfdom. Hence, nobility was basically a class of well-off citizens, not owners of other human beings. In the Middle Ages and much of the modern age, nobles and other wealthy men were landowners, as well as lords of villeins and servants. Members of the nobility utilized their economic power and sometimes also other powers to have smaller farm-owners sell their lands to manor lords, so landowning centralized gradually more in the hands of the noble class.

There was a special group of petty nobility, the so-called knapadel, derived from the last centuries of the Middle Ages, who generally were not able to produce a royal letter of ennoblement to support their status. Regarding certain districts where there existed a disproportionally high number of such families, their introduction to the House of Nobility was often denied. However, in most cases, such petty noble families were ultimately registered as nobles (the concept of "ancient nobility" was a loose one, in many cases demonstrated only by privileges enjoyed for a long time, for example in taxation or holding offices). Thus, quite many families confirmed in their nobility in the 17th century were presumably actually without any original royal ennoblement, but only became frälse by decisions of past royal bailiffs of castles and such.

At the head of the Swedish clergy stood since 1164 the Archbishop of Uppsala. Under the bishops where Vicars and... The clergy encompassed almost all the times educated men and was furthermore strengthen by by considerable wealth and thus it came naturally to play a significant political role. Until the reformation the clergy was the first estate but was relegated to the secular estate in the protestant north Europe

Clerical (pastor) Families genealogy concept in genealogy to characterize some families in the Swedish Church in which members of the family had served for generations in the Swedish Church either as active as clergy in the Church, educational institutions or in the civil service.


Divisions of nobility in Sweden

Swedish nobility is organized into three classes according to a scheme introduced in riddarhusordningen (Standing orders of the House of Knights) 1626

The two last classes contains the so called untitled nobility (Swedish: obetitlad adel). The division into classes has roots in the middle ages when the nobility frälse was divided into lords in the Privy Council, knights and esquires.

Surnames

Surnames in Sweden can be treaced to the 15th century where they where first used by the Gentry (Frälse) i.e. priests and nobles. The names of the where usually in Swedish, German, Latin or Greek.

The adoption of latin names was first used by the Catholic clergy. The given name was preceeded by given name preceded by Herr (Sir), like Herr Lars, Herr Olof, Herr Hans followed by latinized form of patronymic names, (Anders Karlsson latinized- Andreas Caroli). During the 17th century a Latinized form of their birthplace became a common naming practice for the clergy (Andreas Caroli Hornaeus - from Hornön (The city of Härnösand). Another subsequent practice was the use of the greek language with the ending with "ander", the Greek word for man, (ex. Lysander, Wallander). The use of surnames was still quite uncommon in the 17 th century among the nobility and the educated class. Furthermore, the concept heredatary surnames was also just limited to a a few families.

When a family was ennobled, it was usually given a name - just as lordships of England and other Western European countries. In 17th and 18th centuries, the surname was only rarely the original family name of the ennobled, rather a more imposing new names was chosen. This was a period which produced a myriad of two-word Swedish-language family names for the nobility (very favored prefixes were Adler, "noble"; Ehren - "ära", "honor"; Silfver, "silver"; and Gyllen, "golden"). The regular difference with Britain was that it became the new surname of the whole house, and the old surname was dropped altogether. To understand ennoblements better, we may think a noble as, using a Finnish example, Augustin Schaeffer, Lord Ehrensvärd when ennobled, but they did not continue to use the old, thus he was, starting from the ennoblement, "Lord Augustin Ehrensvärd". Usually when became a bishop it was common that the descents where ennobled. This was due to the fact that clergy represented the clerical estate and hence would have no use of nobility. The medieval tradition that continued in Catholic countries was that as the clergy was the first estate noblemen who took orders should not principally use their family coat of arms.


Portrait gallery of Swedish (Finnish) Gentry

The portraits (below) are an illustration of people and surnames from the gentry.


Province of Finland

Finnish 17th century nobleman Gustaf Horn.
Finnish 17th century clergyman Johannes Gezelius the elder.

Areas of modern day Finland were integrated into the Swedish realm in the 13th century, at a time when that realm was still in the process of being formed. The formal nobility in Finland dates back to 1280 when it was agreed in the entire Swedish realm by the Decree of Alsnö that magnates who could afford to contribute to the cavalry with a heavily equipped horse-soldier were to be exempted from tax - at least from ordinary land taxes - as the clergy already had been. The archaic term for nobility, frälse, also includes the clergy when referring to their exemption from tax.

At the time of Late Middle Ages Latin was still the language of instruction from the secondary school upwards and in use among the educated class and priests. As Finland was part of Sweden for 700 years, Swedish was the language of the nobility, administration and education. Hence the two highest estates of the realm, i.e. nobles and priests, had Swedish as the language of the gentry. In the two minor estates, burghers and peasants, Swedish also held sway, but in a more varying degree depending on regional differences.

In the Middle Ages celibacy in the Catholic Church was a natural barrier to the formation of an hereditary priestly class. After compulsory celibacy was abolished in Sweden during the Reformation, the formation of an hereditary priestly class became possible, whereby wealth and clerical positions were frequently inheritable. Hence the bishops and the vicars, who formed the clerical upper class, would frequently have manors similar to those of the nobility.[citation needed] Hence continued the medieval church legacy of the intermingling between nobel class and clerical upper class and the intermarriage as the distinctive element in several Nordic countries after the Reformation. As a result, the gentry in Finland was constituted by nobles, clerical and some burgher families.

Among the nobility, a very large proportion of the families arrived directly from Sweden but significant amount had foreign origins (preedominantly German),[7][8] but their descendants normally adopted Swedish as their first language. The clergy in the earlier part the formation of the Lutheran Church (in its High Church form) was constituted most often of the the wealthier strata of the peasantry with the closely linked medieval Finnish nobility and the rising burgher class in the expanding cities. Their descendants usually adopted Swedish as their first language, but, as the Church required fluency in Finnish from clergymen serving in predominantly or totally Finnish-speaking parishes (most of the country), they tended to maintain a high degree of functional bilingualism. In the Middle Ages, commerce in the Swedish realm, including Finland, was dominated by German merchants who immigrated in large numbers to the cities and towns of Sweden and Finland.[citation needed] As a result, the wealthier burghers in Sweden (and in Finnish cities as Åbo and Vyborg) during the late middle ages tended to be of German origin. In the 19th century, a new wave of immigration came from German speaking countries with preedominantly connected to commercial activities, which has up to date has formed a notable part of the Swedish-speaking grand bourgeoisie in Finland.

The lowest, non-titled level of hereditary nobility was "adelsman" (i.e, "noble"). The untitled nobility was basically a rank without a fief. In practice, however, the majority of noble houses were fiefholder's until the late 19th century.

In contrast to the United Kingdom and the Benelux countries, no hereditary titles or honours have been possible to grant since 1917. The last baron created was August Langhoff in 1912; he was Minister State Secretary of Finland.

Hungarian

Main article: Nobility in the Kingdom of Hungary

Nobility in the Kingdom of Hungary

The origin of the nobility in the Kingdom of Hungary can be traced back to the "men distinguished by birth and dignity" (maiores natu et dignitate) mentioned in the charters of the first kings. They descended partly from the leaders of the Magyar tribes and clans and partly from the immigrant (mainly German, Italian and French) knights who settled in the kingdom in the course of the 10-12th centuries.

A little noble (gentry) manor house in Magyarnádas (today Nădăşelu in Romania)

By the 13th century, the royal servants (servientes regis), who mainly descended from the wealthier freemen (liberi), managed to ensure their liberties and their privileges were confirmed in the Golden Bull issued by King Andrew II of Hungary in 1222. Several families of the soldiers of the royal fortresses (iobagio castri) could also strengthen their liberties and they received the status of the "true nobles of the realm" (veri nobiles regni) by the end of the 13th century, although most of them lost their liberties and became subordinate to private castle-holders. Many leaders of the mainly Slavic, German and Romanian colonists who immigrated to the kingdom during the 11-15th centuries also merged into the nobility. Moreover, the kings had the authority to reward commoners with nobility and thenceforward, they enjoyed all the liberties of other nobles.

From the 14th century, the idea of "one and the same liberty" (una eademque libertas) appeared in the public law of the kingdom; the idea suggested that all the nobles enjoyed the same privileges independently of their offices, birth or wealth. Moreover, public law also recognized the existence of some groups of the "conditional nobility" (conditionarius) whose privileges were limited; e.g., the "nobles of the Church" (nobilis ecclesiæ) were burdened with defined services to be provided to certain prelates. In some cases, not individuals but a group of people was granted a legal status similar to that of the nobility; e.g., the Hajdú people enjoyed the privileges of the nobility not as individuals but as a community.


Spanish

Main article: Spanish nobility

Spanish nobles are classified either as Grandes de España (also called in English grandees), or as titled nobles. Formerly, grandees were divided into the first, second and third classes, but now, all grandees enjoy the same privileges. Lower nobility held titles such as hidalgo, infanzon (aragonese equivalent to hidalgo), escudero (esquire), but these do not correspond to baron, a title unknown to Spanish nobility but in Catalonia. Hidalgo (plural:hijosdalgo) was the most common one, all the people of Biscay having been granted that noble title. All titled and untitled nobles are considered hidalgos.

Hidalgo

Main article: Hidalgo (Spanish nobility)
Gustave Doré: Don Quixote of La Mancha and Sancho Panza, 1863

An hidalgo or fidalgo is a member of the Spanish nobility. In popular usage it has come to mean the non-titled nobility. Hidalgos were exempt from paying taxes, but did not necessarily own real property.

Since at least the twelfth century, the words fijo dalgo (often literally translated as "son of something"), or its common contraction, fidalgo, was used in the Kingdoms of Castile and Portugal to refer to the nobility. In Portugal the cognate remained fidalgo, although these "nobles" had a somewhat different status from the Spanish hidalgos. In the Kingdom of Aragon the counterpart of the Castilian hidalgos were called infanzones (singular: infanzón). With the changes in Spanish pronunciation that occurred in the late Middle Ages, the [f] became silent giving rise to the modern pronunciation and spelling, hidalgo.[9] (See, History of the Spanish language.)

The term is a calque of the Arabic expressions which used ibn ("son") or bint ("daughter") and an noun to describe someone. It should be noted that although the word algo generally means "something," in this expression the word specifically denotes "riches" or "wealth"; therefore, it was originally a a synonym of "noble" or ricohombre (literally a "rich man") in the Spanish of the period.

In literature the hidalgo is usually portrayed as a noble who has lost nearly all of his family's wealth but still held on to the privileges and honours of the nobility. The prototypical fictional hidalgo is Don Quixote, who was given the sobriquet 'the Ingenious Hidalgo' by his creator, Miguel de Cervantes. In the novel Cervantes has Don Quixote satirically present himself as an hidalgo de sangre and aspire to live the life of a knight-errant despite the fact that his economic position does not allow him to truly do so.[10]Don Quixote's possessions allowed to him a meager life devoted to his reading obsession, yet his concept of honour led him to emulate the knights-errant.

Poland

Szlachta

Main article: Szlachta

The Polish term "szlachta" designates the formalized, hereditary noble class. In official Latin documents the old Commonwealth hereditary szlachta is referred to as "nobilitas" and is equivalent to the English nobility.

The Polish nobility probably derived from a Slavic warrior class, forming a distinct element within the ancient Polonic tribal groupings. This is uncertain, however, as there is little surviving documentation on the early history of Poland, or of the movements of the Slavonic people into what became the territory so designated. The szlachta themselves claimed descent from the Sarmatians (see paragraph 2.2 below) who came to Europe in the 5th century C.E. Around the 14th century, there was little difference between knights and the szlachta in Poland, apart from legal and economic. Members of the szlachta had the personal obligation to defend the country (pospolite ruszenie), thereby becoming the kingdom's privileged social class.

All children of the Polish nobility inherited their noble status from a noble mother and father. Any individual could attain ennoblement (nobilitacja) for special services to the state. A foreign noble might be naturalised as a Polish noble (Polish: "indygenat") by the Polish king (later, from 1641, only by a general sejm).

Polish noblemen, early 17th century.

In theory at least, all Polish noblemen were social equals. Also in theory they were legal peers. Those who held 'real power' dignities were more privileged but these dignities were not hereditary. Those who held honorary dignities were higher in 'ritual' hierarchy but these dignities were also granted for a lifetime. Some tenancies became hereditary and went with both privilege and titles. Nobles who were not direct barons of the Crown but held land from other lords were only peers "de iure". The poorest enjoyed the same rights as the wealthiest magnate. The exceptions were a few symbolically privileged families such as the Radziwiłł, Lubomirski and Czartoryski, who sported honorary aristocratic titles recognized in Poland or received from foreign courts, such as "Prince" or "Count." (see also The Princely Houses of Poland). All other szlachta simply addressed each other by their given name or as "Sir Brother" (Panie bracie) or the feminine equivalent. The other forms of address would be "Illustrious and Magnificent Lord", "Magnificent Lord", "Generous Lord" or "Noble Lord" (in decreasing order) or simply "His/Her Grace Lord/Lady

According to their financial standing, the nobility were in common speech divided into:

  • magnates: the wealthiest class; owners of vast lands, towns, many villages, thousands of peasants
  • middle nobility (średnia szlachta): owners of one or more villages, often having some official titles or Envoys from the local Land Assemblies to the General Assembly,
  • petty nobility (drobna szlachta), owners of a part of a village or owning no land at all, often referred to by a variety of colourful Polish terms such as:
    • szaraczkowa - grey nobility, from their grey, woollen, uncoloured zupans
    • okoliczna - local nobility, similar to zaściankowa
    • zagrodowa - from zagroda, a farm, often little different from a peasant's dwelling
    • zagonowa - from zagon, a small unit of land measure, hide nobility
    • cząstkowa - partial, owners of only part of a single village
    • panek - little pan (i.e. lordling), term used in Kaszuby, the Kashubian region, also one of the legal terms for legally separated lower nobility in late medieval and early modern Poland
    • hreczkosiej - buckwheat sowers - those who had to work their fields themselves.
    • zaściankowa - from zaścianek, a name for plural nobility settlement, neighbourhood nobility. Just like hreczkosiej, zaściankowa nobility would have no peasants.
    • brukowa - cobble nobility, for those living in towns like townsfolk
    • gołota - naked nobility, i.e. the landless. Gołota szlachta would be considered the 'lowest of the high'.

Transformation into aristocracy

For many centuries, wealthy and powerful members of the szlachta sought to gain legal privileges over their peers. Few szlachta were wealthy enough to be known as magnates (karmazyni — the "Crimsons", from the crimson colour of their boots). A proper magnate should be able to trace noble ancestors back for many generations and own at least 20 villages or estates. He should also hold a major office in the Commonwealth.

Some historians estimate the number of magnates as 1% of the number of szlachta. Out of approx. one million szlachta, tens of thousands of families, only 200-300 persons could be classed as great magnates with country-wide possessions and influence, and 30-40 of them could be viewed as those with significant impact on Poland's politics.

Holy Roman Empire - Austrian Empire

Western Ukrainian Clergy

Main article: Western Ukrainian Clergy

The Western Ukrainian clergy of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church were a hereditary tight-knit social caste that dominated western Ukrainian society from the late eighteenth until the mid twentieth centuries, following the reforms instituted by Joseph II, Emperor of Austria. Because, like their Orthodox brethren, Ukrainian Catholic priests could marry, they were able to establish "priestly dynasties", often associated with specific regions, for many generations. Numbering approximately 2,000-2,500 by the 19th century, priestly families tended to marry within their group, constituting a tight-knit hereditary caste. [11] In the absence of a significant native nobility, and enjoying a virtual monopoly on education and wealth within western Ukrainian society, the clergy came to form that group's native aristocracy. The clergy adopted Austria's role for them as bringers of culture and education to the Ukrainian countryside. Most Ukrainian social and political movements in Austrian-controlled territory emerged or were highly influenced by the clergy themselves or by their children. This influence was so great that western Ukrainians were accused of wanting to create a theocracy in western Ukraine by their Polish rivals. [12]. The central role played by the Ukrainian clergy or their children in western Ukrainian society would weaken somewhat at the end of the nineteenth century but would continue until the mid-twentieth century.

North America

United States of America

Colonial families of the United States

Main articles: First Families of Virginia, Colonial families of Maryland, and Colonial families of the United States
Mount Vernon, Virginia, was the plantation home of George Washington
George Washington
Thomas Jefferson
Jefferson's Home Monticello
Monticello, in Virginia, was the estate of Thomas Jefferson

The Colonial American use of gentry followed the British usage; before the independence of the United States, Southern plantation owners were often the younger sons of British landowners, who perpetuated the British system in rural Virginia and Charleston, South Carolina, by employing tenant farmers, indentured servants, and chattel slaves. In the Northeastern United States the gentry included (colonial and British) offshoot families who established the city of Boston, Massachusetts, and Harvard and Yale colleges.

The Families of Virginia ((see First Families of Virginia, Colonial families of Maryland) which formed the Virginia gentry class as the old guard of plantation owners in United States. As General Robert E. Lee's paternal ancestors were among the earliest settlers in Virginia his family was considered among the oldest of the Virginia gentry class

The concept the gentleman farmer a man who farms mainly for pleasure rather than for profit, was not only a model for the Southern Gentry but very much the an ideal befitting some of founding fathers of America, such as Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. Thomas Jefferson, the patron of American agrarianism, wrote in his Notes on Virginia (1785), "Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God, if He ever had a chosen people, whose breasts He has made His peculiar deposit for substantial and genuine virtue.

George Washington resumed himself the life of a gentleman farmer at his Mount Vernon estate in Virginia following his resignation as commander in chief of the Army, December 1783. Washington lived an aristocratic lifestyle—fox hunting was a favorite leisure activity. Like most Virginia planters, he imported luxuries and other goods from England and paid for them by exporting his tobacco crop. Extravagant spending and the unpredictability of the tobacco market meant that many Virginia planters of Washington's day were losing money.

The American gentry, even in cases where the family never had obtained official rights to bear a coat of arms in history, bore all the same hall marks of traditional elite as in the old continent.


Values and traditions associated with the gentry

The military and clerical tradition of the gentry

Historically, the nobles in Europe became soldiers. Actually, the aristocracy in Europe can trace their origins to military leaders from the migration period and the Middle Ages. For many years the British Army, together with the Church, was seen as the ideal career for the younger sons of the aristocracy, those who would not inherit their fathers' titles or estates. Although now much diminished, the practice has not totally disappeared, the slang term 'Rupert' being used to describe such blue-blooded, usually British public school educated, officers. Such practices are not unique to the British either geographically or historically. As a very practical form of displaying patriotism it has been at times "fashionable" for "gentlemen" to participate in the military, usually the militia, to fulfill societal expectations. It has been said that the title "Colonel" was the ultimate fashion accessory for a Southern gentleman.

Superiority of the fighting man

The fundamental idea of "gentry", symbolised in this grant of coat-armour, had come to be that of the essential superiority of the fighting man; and, as Selden points out (page 707), the fiction was usually maintained in the granting of arms "to an ennobled person though of the long Robe wherein he hath little use of them as they mean a shield". At the last the wearing of a sword on all occasions was the outward and visible sign of a "gentleman"; the custom survives in the sword worn with "court dress". A suggestion that a gentleman must have a coat of arms was vigorously advanced by certain 19th and 20th century heraldists, notably Arthur Charles Fox-Davies in England and Thomas Innes of Learney in Scotland. But the suggestion is discredited by an examination, in England, of the records of the High Court of Chivalry and, in Scotland, by a judgment of the Court of Session (per Lord Mackay in Maclean of Ardgour v. Maclean [1941] SC 613 at 650). The significance of a right to a coat of arms was that it was definitive proof of the status of gentleman, but it recognised rather than conferred such a status and the status could be and frequently was accepted without a right to a coat of arms.

Gentleman

The term gentleman (from Latin gentilis, belonging to a race or "gens", and "man", cognate with the French word gentilhomme, the Spanish hombre gentil and the Italian gentil uomo or gentiluomo), in its original and strict signification, denoted a man of good family, analogous to the Latin generosus (its invariable translation in English-Latin documents). In this sense the word equates with the French gentilhomme (nobleman), which latter term was in Great Britain long confined to the peerage. The term "gentry" (from the Old French genterise for gentelise) has much of the social class significance of the French noblesse or of the German Adel, but without the strict technical requirements of those traditions (such as quarters of nobility). This was what the rebels under John Ball in the 14th century meant when they repeated:

When Adam delft and Eve span,
Who was then the Gentleman?[1]

To a degree, "gentleman" signified a man with an income derived from property, a legacy or some other source, and was thus independently wealthy and did not need to work.

Noblesse oblige

General Robert E. Lee
Robert E. Lee's Arlington estate

The idea of "Noblesse oblige" "nobility obliges among Gentry is as the Oxford English Dictionary expresses that the term "suggests noble ancestry constrains to honourable behavior; privilege entails to responsibility". Being a noble meant that one had responsibilities to lead, manage and so on. One was not to simply spend one's time in idle pursuits.

Lee's definition speaks only to conduct.

The forbearing use of power does not only form a touchstone, but the manner in which an individual enjoys certain advantages over others is a test of a true gentleman.
The power which the strong have over the weak, the employer over the employed, the educated over the unlettered, the experienced over the confiding, even the clever over the silly — the forbearing or inoffensive use of all this power or authority, or a total abstinence from it when the case admits it, will show the gentleman in a plain light.
The gentleman does not needlessly and unnecessarily remind an offender of a wrong he may have committed against him. He can not only forgive, he can forget; and he strives for that nobleness of self and mildness of character which impart sufficient strength to let the past be but the past. A true man of honor feels humbled himself when he cannot help humbling others.[13]

East Asia

Four occupations (East Asia)

Main article: Four occupations (East Asia)

The four divisions of society refers to the model of society in ancient China and was a meritocratic social class system in China, and other subsequently influenced Confucian societies. The four castes -- gentry, farmers, artisans and merchants -- are combined to form the term Shìnónggōngshāng (士農工商).

Gentry （士） This means different things in different countries.

In China, Korea, and Vietnam, this meant that the Confucian scholar gentry that would- for the most part- make up most of the bureaucracy. This caste would comprise of both the more-or-less hereditary aristocracy as well as the meritocratic scholars that rise through the rank by public service and, later, by imperial exams.

In Japan, this caste essentially equates to the samurai class. In Edo period, with the creation of the Domains (han) under the rule of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, all land was confiscated and reissued as fiefdoms to the daimyo. The small lords, the samurai (武士, bushi), were ordered to either give up their swords and rights and remain on their lands as peasants, or move to the castle cities to become paid retainers of the daimyo. Only a few samurai were allowed to remain in the countryside; the landed samurai (郷士, gōshi). Some 5% of the population were samurai. Only the samurai could have proper surnames, which after the Meiji Restoration became compulsory to all inhabitants (see Japanese name)


Gentry noun

Posing as a member of the gentry upper classes, privileged classes, elite, high society, haut monde, smart set; establishment, aristocracy; informal upper crust, top drawer. (The New Oxford American Dictionary (NOAD), Second Edition)


See also

Notes

  1. ^ Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary
  2. ^ http://www.askoxford.com:80/concise_oed/gentry?view=ukCompact Oxford English Dictionary
  3. ^ Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary (1996) p.798
  4. ^ Mallory, J.P. In search of the Indo-Europeans Thames & Hudson (1991) p131
  5. ^ "French Absolutism". SUNY Suffolk history department. Retrieved 2007-09-29.
  6. ^ Frederic Austin Ogg, The governments of Europe (1920), Macmillan, p. 681
  7. ^ Haggren & Jansson, 2005. New light on the colonisation of Nyland, http://www.ennenjanyt.net/4-04/haggren.pdf,"Nyland has always been characterised as an area of medieval colonisation conducted by the Swedes. Previously this colonisation has been seen as an immigration of independents peasants. As a new result a significant noble impact has been verified both in the colonisation activity itself and the establishing of parish churches as well".
  8. ^ Kari Tarkiainen, Sveriges Österland, från forntiden till Gustav vasa, 2008,"Frälseståndets ursprung var till två tredjedel svenskt, till en tredjedel tyskt. Någon social rörelse som skulle ha fört kristnade finnar uppåt till dessa poster fanns inte, då jordegendomen inte var ett vilkor för en ledande ställning inom förvaltning, rättskipning och skatteadministration".
  9. ^ Corominas, Joan and José A Pascual (1981). "Hijo" in Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, Vol. G-Ma (3). Madrid: Editorial Gredos, 359-360. ISBN 84-249-1362-0
  10. ^ Rey Hazas, Antonio, "El Quijote y la picaresca: la figura del hidalgo en el nacimiento de la novela moderna", Edad de Oro (in Spanish), 15: 141–160, retrieved 2009-06-02 {{citation}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |month= (help)
  11. ^ Orest Subtelny. (1988). Ukraine: A History. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, pp.214-219.
  12. ^ Himka, John Paul. (1999). Religion and Nationality in Western Ukraine. McGill-Queen's University Press: Montreal and Kingston. Pg. 10
  13. ^ "Definition of a Gentleman", a memorandum found in Lee's papers after his death, as quoted in Lee the American (1912) by Gamaliel Bradford, p. 233

References

  • Burke's Landed Gentry (genealogy book), John Burke family et al., 1826, 1898, United Kingdom.
  • Preston North End fans are known by a former manager, The Gentry.
  • Peter Coss, The Origins of the English Gentry. Past and Present Publications. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press (2003). ISBN 052182673X
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