Includes bibliographical references (pages 289-306) and index.

"The book deals with the deep roots of the gentry, but argues against views which see the gentry as formed or created earlier. It investigates the relationship between lesser landowners and the Angevin state, the transformation of knighthood, and the role of knights in the rebellion of mid-thirteenth-century England. The role of lesser landowners in the society and politics of Edwardian England is then put under close scrutiny. The book moves on to explore the effects of the explosion of commissions which took place from the 1290s onwards, the rise of the House of Commons and the emergence of justices of the peace - which produced a varitable partnership in government between the crown and the gentry. Finally it emphasises changes in social terminology and the rise of social gradation, the emergence of the county as an important focus of identity, the gentry's control over the populace, and their openness to the upward mobility of professionals."--Jacket.

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