Abstract
The model of social status is illustrated by an exploration into the foundations of social ranking in English feudalism. It is argued that the terms ‘baron’ and ‘knight’ crystallised as the basis of a social hierarchy of royal honours that lay at the heart of the medieval nobility centred around the idea of chivalry. It is shown that this coexisted with emerging economic class divisions rooted in commercial activity.
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Notes
- 1.
For convenience, I shall use present-day country names as geographical terms, rather than trying to use such contemporary designations as the rulers and inhabitants may have used.
- 2.
In the Scottish kingdoms, companions were generally the heads of clans and were referred to as thanes. The Scottish equivalent of an ealdorman was a mormaer.
- 3.
A third form of tenancy was service by sergeanty or political service.
- 4.
This tripartite distinction has a long history in Indo-European languages and is found in a variety of societies. It is known to have been used in India from around 1500 BC, where three ‘twice-born’ varna were distinguished as brahman (priests), kshatriya (warriors), and vaishya (farmers), all separate from the servile Shudra.
- 5.
The origins of this term are disputed, but it seems most likely to have been used in the same sense as the bachelor who has an academic status below that of a ‘master’. In Roman times, a bachelor milites was junior to an equestrian (equites) and usage may have echoed this.
- 6.
Only in 1429 was a franchise based on land valued at £2 per year introduced—this remained in force until the nineteenth century.
- 7.
The term ‘peasant’ is not appropriate for this period, as argued by Macfarlane (1978), and though the term ‘serf’ is widely used in Marxism to refer to the village labourers, it, too, is not strictly accurate.
- 8.
The equivalents of the esquire’s post-nominal in other countries were the predicates don in Spain, de in France, von in the German states, and van in the Low Countries (Bush 1983: 141–142).
- 9.
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Scott, J. (2024). Chivalric Honours. In: Class and Social Honour. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-45948-1_3
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