England
England in the Fifteenth Century
It's worth pausing for breath here. What follows is a complicated story in which England loses everything Henry V had gained and more, while back at home it descended into civil war. It will help your understanding of those events to take a look at the social and economic realities of the times. It'll also give you a break from this endless torrent of names!
Nobles
About fifty great families really ruled England. They possessed strong stone castles in multiple locations, allowing them not only to hold their own, but to retreat to other strongholds in times of adversity.
More importantly, they controlled private armies procured by livery and maintenance. Livery was a retaining fee paid to a man on condition that he serve the employer in arms when called upon. The term also refers to the colors and signs worn by a lord's followers. A man in the service of a lord was said to "wear his livery". Most times, these were hardly more than gangs of thugs who roamed about at their leisure. At need, they would be sent against an enemy, to rough someone up, vandalise estates, or commit murder. And, if the situation became grave enough, they could be mobilised en masse to form an actual army.
Maintenance was general support of the lesser man by the greater, especially before the courts. The lord saw to it that his men had the money they needed, usually by finding them a source of income rather than paying them directly. Since these men regularly broke the law, providing protection at court was an important part of maintenance.
This system was not peculiar to England. The tendency can be found across Europe at this time. But the dynastic troubles of the late 14th century, followed by the reign of Henry VI and the Wars of the Roses, allowed it to flourish in England with especial strength.
Gentry
The term meant a gentleman. A gentleman bore a coat of arms, which by this time could be purchased, and owned enough land so that he could live in reasonable style on the rents without taking any active part in agricultural production. He lived in a manor house lightly fortified and was lord of at least one manor, though more and more lived in a town for at least part of the year. He might be a knight, though most were armigers—squires, also called franklins.
A justice of the peace was required to be a gentleman, and most of the House of Commons was made up of gentlemen. The interests of peers and gentry generally coincided, except that peers could afford civil war, while the gentry wanted peace and order.
Burghers
The line between gentry and burgher was not wide. Younger sons of gentlemen often were apprenticed to mercantile houses in the city. Likewise, a prosperous merchant might buy land and within a generation or two his family would be accepted as gentle.
Rural gentry increasingly became involved in the wool trade. This close connection between the lesser nobility and the urban mercantile class was unique to England—very rare in Germany and France, and even in Italy.
Yeomen
A small freeholder or the tenant of a large farm. He might be well enough off to have hired hands. Yeomen rose rapidly in numbers and importance in the 14thc and 15thc. They were above the class of common peasants. A successful peasant family could gradually increase its holdings until it attained yeoman status, and prosperous yeomen merged easily into the gentry.
OK, back to our regularly-scheduled narrative. . . .