.12 ~ 16 Century British Gentry

The formation and rise of the gentry is an important content and represent of the transition of England society from an ancient feudal one to an early modern counterpart. It will be very helpful for us to understand the course of the transition more intensively if we pay much more attention to the study of the gentry. So from the perspective of microcosmic, this thesis firstly tries to seek the origin and evolvement of the gentry, and then analyzes concretely the gentry's main function and effect in the economic, political and cultural fields during the transition period. This text primarily is divided into four parts.Chapter one is the introduction and summary of the former researches. After that, I put forward the purpose and significance of my thesis.Chapter two analyzes the different criterions on defining the gentry. Then seek the course of the formation and evolvement of the gentry. On the basis of this, I point out that the gentry is a concept in development and should be researched from the same perspective. The gentry were born out of the middle and less landowners in Middle Ages. At the beginning of the early modern, they gradually inosculated with the plebeian who took up the capitalistic methods in production and finally recombined a new middle group, which was different from the old-type landlords.Chapter three mainly discusses the relationship between the gentry and two important changes in economic field. One is the sale of the monasterial lands; the other is the movement of enclosure. The former made the gentry become the biggest landowners in England while the latter turned lands into the capital for gentry to wring the capitalistic rents. Both of them had wobbled the foundation of the feudal economy. Contrasting to Moore's exaggerating description of the violence in the course of enclosure, the fact is that the gentry would adjust measures to local conditions rather than resort to force. This ensures the economic changes in early modern England go on wheels to some extent.Chapter four discusses the gentry's role in the political and cultural changes during the early modern period. In the first part, I introduce the transform of the...