Locality and Polity

This is a comprehensive study of minor landowners - the gentry - in one county in fifteenth-century England. In common with other local studies of the later Middle Ages, it builds upon the seminal work of K. B. McFarlane, looking at the political and social world in the localities from which the nobles drew their power. The book aims to present a rounded picture of the experiences of the gentry, relating their private and their public lives, and their permanent concerns to the changing needs of local and national politics. Its approach is thus both thematic, exploring the main elements, often private in nature, which moulded their public actions, such as marriage, estate management and senses of family, and chronological, presenting a detailed narrative of politics and account of political structures and relationships. The book is intended as a contribution to the history of England as a whole in the fifteenth century and to the study of the long-term development of the English landed classes and the English constitution.