Marriage, debt, and the estates system : English landownership, 1650-1950

This book examines the social and legal foundations of the British ruling class, the great landlords and the gentry. From the late seventeenth century, when it freed itself from many of the constraints of royal power, to the present century, when it became submerged by mass democracy, this class was the central element in the social and political life of Britain. Sir John Habakkuk sets out to examine why it was that, in the first industrial nation, the landed lite so long retained its role.