15-16 century England - a country that emerged from the darkness of the Middle Ages, but still entangled outdated rules, laws and concepts.It took a powerful impetus to the development of this state has reached a new stage.And the main driving role in the necessary transformation played come from estates untitled nobles - gentry.These are the people who set in motion the wheel of history, carrying the English bourgeois revolution.
Who are the gentry
meaning of the word "gentry" - the rich, noble, noble.This word has French roots, and later came to be called as a separate class in medieval England.The new class includes younger sons of the rich genera.According to the laws of inheritance, they had no property rights on the inalienable / mayoratnye / land, and were content with modest holdings.Ruined large landowners, successful merchants, wealthy city dwellers or wealthy farmers who have bought the right to be called nobles - that's who the gentry.The position of the representatives of the new class was not clearly marked as such, the position of knights and peasants.Untitled landowners yeomen were higher than normal, but they were not so noble, to be called lords.Such interim status demanded a special designation of the social role of people.Word of the gentry - is the most appropriate term to describe a new social class.
Formation class gentry
Being able to adapt to capitalist relations in Britain 16-17 century, the gentry began to guide the new economic relations in the English countryside.By the secularization of church lands, expropriation or dead runaway landlords and squatters communal areas, representatives of the new class gradually increased its ownership of land.In contrast to the yeomen, the gentry were not engaged in heavy labor krstyanskim.Obtaining capital from land holdings was carried out in two ways.Earth such landlords leased to peasants - that is, were paid to farmers for rent.The second way to profit gentry - a treatment of its own land with the assistance of hired workers.Both methods are traditional for the capitalist model of economic development.The proceeds so money invested in trade or production, thereby expanding and consolidating a new model of economic relations.
Influence of the gentry in the politics and economy of England
From class gentry left many political figures of the time, including the leaders of the parliamentary opposition, who opposed the absolutism of the Stuarts.Gentry - is George. Pym, O. Cromwell, George. Hampden and other politicians who started the transformation in England.The new nobles were the main allies of the young bourgeoisie, as the transformation led to a sharp increase land ownership gentry.The Revolution allowed to cancel "chivalrous content", and land squatting under the influence of new political laws have turned into full private ownership of the gentry.Inserting capitals in trade and production allowed to make a profit in a relatively short period of time.Results
appearance gentry
Capitalization allowed the wealthiest nobles receive a new type of future titles and titles that were previously only allowed to have a hereditary members of the upper class.Many representatives of the new class gave rise to the urban bourgeoisie, and most of them have remained minor local untitled nobles, who traditionally supported the Conservatives and played important roles in local government.
