Gentry, yeomen, and labourers

The lords of the manor (often called the gentry) were the leading men of each district. Everyone looked up to them. All men with money (and their wives) wanted to belong to the gentry. Many a rich merchant from the towns bought land and turned himself into a lord of the manor.

Kings and queens relied on the gentry to keep order and enforce the law. As Justices of the Peace (J.P.s), they sat as judges in the local courts, fixed food prices, and collected the taxes that were used to help the poor. J.P.s got no pay for their work, but they did not complain - they liked being in charge.

The better-off villagers were called yeomen. They owned part of their land, and rented the rest from the gentry. Yeomen worked on their own farms, but also employed labourers, and paid them wages. Yeomen made money by selling the corn they grew and the wool from their sheep. Some of them grew rich in the sixteenth century. A few rose to join the ranks of the gentry.

Below the yeomen were the tenants and labourers, who owned no land. Tenants rented some land (strips in the open fields) from the lords of the manor, but also earned wages, working for the lords or the yeomen. Labourers had no strips, and worked full-time for wages. Both they and the tenants grew poorer in the sixteenth century.

Walter Robson: Crown, Parliament and People; Oxford University Press, 1992/2002, page 6 f.