social class

wealth/property in britain

• gentry had 50%

  • 15,000 gentry

• nobility had 15%

• rest held mostly by church or monarch

nobility - Charles I

• elite class - highest status, below king

  • heads of nobility fams oft members of HoL

• lots land, property + titles = inherited

• most wealth = from land ownership

  • oft tied to food prices + rent

• lots power/wealth - money from tithes, extensive land

• ‘42 - Earl of Worcester donated £700,000 to royalist cause

  • Marquis of Newcastle donated £900,000

Interregnum

• ⭣ power

• HoL temporarily closed down ‘49

  • lost lord privileges

later years

• charles II + james II - reasserted nobility power

  • rights reaffirmed + in some cases extended

  • HoL re established

    • lords in hereditary office x needed to take test act

    • power limited - cld be tried by peers for criminal accusations

• econ power ⭣ - inflation, growth of trade (⭡ power of merchants/gentry)

gentry - Charles I

• ⭡ power - created new hereditary title of baronet

  • cld be purchased by any fam w proof of a coat of arms + cld afford cost

• ⭡ pol power

  • normalisation of gentry sons entering law careers

    • prerequisite for becoming mp/joining privy council

• post personal rule

  • c had to turn to parl to help fight scots

    • most mps = gentry

      • many gained power thru pol - John Pym

• in build up to civil war parl became ⭡ important

Interregnum

• many gentry officers who fought for parl civil war became high profile figures in republic

  • cromwell - became lord protector thru military/pol skill rather than wealth/inheritance

• lords abolished ‘49 - gave gentry ⭡ pol power in commons

  • weakened nobility power

• cld purchase ⭡ land - confiscated royalist land

merchants

• status came from being landed

• oft lived in large towns

  • small group wealthy merchants (mayors + aldermen) developed london

• benefited from pop ⭡, urbanisation, ⭡ of consumerism

• began taking part in pol

• some recieved knighthoods - contributing to econ etc

• soc aims = join gentry + provide children w edu

• power ⭡ as many became involved in oversea trade

  • America

  • East India Company

professionals

• ⭡ demand for professionals due to rising living standards of gentry/merchants

  • legal services

  • healthcare

  • edu

  • new buildings

• led to ⭡ in no. lawyers, doctors, architects, bankers, academics

• membership of Grays Inn (an Inn of Court) ⭡

• 90% students training to be lawyers at Inner Temple = sons of gentry/nobility

  • edu ops still mainly limited to wealthier classes