Gentry (fromOld Frenchgenterie, fromgentil'high-born, noble') are "well-born, genteel and well-bred people" of highsocial class, especially in the past.[1][2]Gentry, in its widest connotation, refers to people of good social position connected tolanded estates (seemanorialism), upper levels of theclergy, or long established "gentle" families of noble descent, some of whom in some cases never obtained the official right to bear acoat of arms. The gentry largely consisted of landowners who could support themselves entirely fromrental income or at least had acountry estate; some weregentleman farmers.
In the United Kingdomgentry specifically refers to thelanded gentry: the majority of the land-owning social class who typically had a coat of arms but did not hold apeerage. The adjective "patrician" ("of or like a person of high social rank")[3] describes comparable elite groups in other analogous traditionalsocial elite strata based in cities, such as thefree cities of Italy (Venice andGenoa) and thefree imperial cities of Germany, Switzerland and theHanseatic League.[a] The term "gentry" by itself, the historianPeter Coss argues, is a broad construct applied by scholars to different societies, sometimes in ways that do not fully align with historical realities. Whilst no single model perfectly fits every society, some scholars favour a unified term to describe these upper social strata.[4][5]
TheProto-Indo-Europeans who settledEurope,Central andWestern Asia and theIndian subcontinent conceived their societies to be ordered (not divided) in a tripartite fashion, the three parts beingcastes.[7] Castes came to be further divided, perhaps as a result of greater specialisation.
The "classic" formulation of the caste system as largely described byGeorges Dumézil was that of a priestly or religiously occupied caste, a warrior caste, and a worker caste. Dumézil dividedProto-Indo-European society into three categories:sovereignty,military and productivity (seeTrifunctional hypothesis). He further subdividedsovereignty into two distinct and complementary sub-parts. One part was formal, juridical, and priestly, but rooted in this world. The other was powerful, unpredictable and also priestly, but rooted in the "other", thesupernatural andspiritual world. The second main division was connected with the use of force, themilitary and war. Finally, there was a third group, ruled by the other two, whose role was productivity: herding, farming andcrafts.
This system of caste roles can be seen in the castes which flourished on the Indian subcontinent and amongst theItalic peoples.
Examples of the Indo-European castes:
Kings were born out of the warrior or noble class, and sometimes the priesthood class, like in India.
Constantine the Great,Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337,convoked theFirst Council of Nicaea in 325, whoseNicene Creed included belief in "one holy catholic and apostolic Church". The emperorTheodosius I madeNicene Christianity thestate church of the Roman Empire with theEdict of Thessalonica of 380.[8]
Afterthe fall of theWestern Roman Empire in the 5th century, there emerged no single powerful secular government in the West, but there was a central ecclesiastical power in Rome, theCatholic Church. In thispower vacuum the Church rose to become the dominant power in the West for the start of this time period.
In essence, the earliest vision ofChristendom was a vision of a Christiantheocracy, agovernment founded upon and upholdingChristian values, whose institutions are spread through and over withChristian doctrine. The Catholic Church's peak of authority over all European Christians and their common endeavours of the Christian community—for example, theCrusades, the fight against theMoors in theIberian Peninsula and against theOttomans in theBalkans—helped to develop a sense of communal identity against the obstacle of Europe's deep political divisions.
The classical heritage flourished throughout the Middle Ages in both theByzantineGreek East and Latin West. InPlato's ideal state there are three major classes (producers, auxiliaries and guardians), which was representative of the idea of the "tripartite soul", which is expressive of three functions or capacities of the human soul: "appetites" (or "passions"), "the spirited element" and "reason" the part that must guide the soul to truth.Will Durant made the case that certain prominent features of Plato'sideal community were discernible in the organization, dogma and effectiveness of "the" Medieval Church in Europe:[9]
For a thousand years Europe was ruled by an order of guardians considerably like that which was visioned by our philosopher. During the Middle Ages it was customary to classify the population of Christendom into laboratores (workers), bellatores (soldiers), and oratores (clergy). The last group, though small in number, monopolized the instruments and opportunities of culture, and ruled with almost unlimited sway half of the most powerful continent on the globe. The clergy, like Plato's guardians, were placed in authority ... by their talent as shown in ecclesiastical studies and administration, by their disposition to a life of meditation and simplicity, and ... by the influence of their relatives with the powers of state and church. In the latter half of the period in which they ruled [800 AD onwards], the clergy were as free from family cares as even Plato could desire [for such guardians] ... [Clerical] Celibacy was part of the psychological structure of the power of the clergy; for on the one hand they were unimpeded by the narrowing egoism of the family, and on the other their apparent superiority to the call of the flesh added to the awe in which lay sinners held them. ...[9]
Gaetano Mosca wrote on the same subject matter in his bookThe Ruling Class concerning the Medieval Church and its structure that
Beyond the fact that Clerical celibacy functioned as a spiritual discipline it also was guarantor of the independence of the Church.[10]
the Catholic Church has always aspired to a preponderant share in political power, it has never been able to monopolize it entirely, because of two traits, chiefly, that are basic in its structure. Celibacy has generally been required of the clergy and of monks. Therefore no real dynasties of abbots and bishops have ever been able to establish themselves. ... Secondly, in spite of numerous examples to the contrary supplied by the warlike Middle Ages, the ecclesiastical calling has by its very nature never been strictly compatible with the bearing of arms. The precept that exhorts the Church to abhor bloodshed has never dropped completely out of sight, and in relatively tranquil and orderly times it has always been very much to the fore.[11]
The fundamental social structure in Europe in theMiddle Ages was between theecclesiastical hierarchy, nobles i.e. the tenants in chivalry or their descendants (counts, barons, knights, esquires, gentlemen) and the ignobles, thefranklins,villeins, citizens, andburgesses. The division of society into classes of nobles and ignobles, in the smaller regions of medieval Europe was inexact. After theProtestant Reformation, social intermingling between the noble class and the hereditary clerical upper class became a feature in the monarchies ofNordic countries. The gentility is primarily formed on the bases of the medieval societies' two higher estates of the realm,nobility andclergy, both exempted from taxation. Subsequent "gentle" families of long descent who never obtained official rights to bear a coat of arms were also admitted to the rural upper-class society: the gentry.
The three estates
The widespread three estates order was particularly characteristic of France:
At the top of the pyramid were the princes and estates of the king or emperor, or with the clergy, the bishops and the pope.
The feudal system was, for the people of the Middle Ages and early modern period, fitted into a God-given order. The nobility and the third estate were born into their class, and change in social position was slow. Wealth had little influence on what estate one belonged to. The exception was the Medieval Church, which was the only institution where competent men (and women) of merit could reach, in one lifetime, the highest positions in society.
The first estate comprised the entire clergy, traditionally divided into "higher" and "lower" clergy. Although there was no formal demarcation between the two categories, the upper clergy were, effectively, clerical nobility, from the families of the second estate or as in the case ofCardinal Wolsey, from more humble backgrounds.
The second estate was the nobility. Being wealthy or influential did not automatically make one a noble, and not all nobles were wealthy and influential (aristocratic families have lost their fortunes in various ways, and the concept of the "poor nobleman" is almost as old as nobility itself). Countries without a feudal tradition did not have a nobility as such.
The nobility of a person might be either inherited or earned. Nobility in its most general and strict sense is an acknowledged preeminence that is hereditary: legitimate descendants (or all male descendants, in some societies) of nobles are nobles, unless explicitly stripped of the privilege. The termsaristocrat andaristocracy are a less formal means to refer to persons belonging to thissocial milieu.
Historically in some cultures, members of an upper class often did not have to work for a living, as they were supported by earned or inherited investments (often real estate), although members of the upper class may have had less actual money than merchants. Upper-class status commonly derived from the social position of one's family and not from one's own achievements or wealth. Much of the population that comprised the upper class consisted of aristocrats, ruling families,titled people, and religious hierarchs. These people were usually born into their status, and historically, there was not much movement across class boundaries. This is to say that it was much harder for an individual to move up in class simply because of the structure of society.
In many countries, the termupper class was intimately associated with hereditary land ownership and titles. Political power was often in the hands of the landowners in many pre-industrial societies (which was one of the causes of the French Revolution), despite there being no legal barriers to land ownership for other social classes. Power began to shift from upper-class landed families to the general population in theearly modern age, leading to marital alliances between the two groups, providing the foundation for the modern upper classes in the West. Upper-class landowners in Europe were often also members of the titled nobility, though not necessarily: the prevalence of titles of nobility varied widely from country to country. Some upper classes were almost entirely untitled, for example, theSzlachta of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Before the Age ofAbsolutism, institutions, such as the church, legislatures, or social elites,[12] restrained monarchical power. Absolutism was characterized by the ending of feudal partitioning, consolidation of power with the monarch, rise of state, rise of professional standing armies, professional bureaucracies, the codification of state laws, and the rise of ideologies that justify the absolutist monarchy. Hence, Absolutism was made possible by innovations and characterized as a phenomenon ofEarly Modern Europe, rather than that of the Middle Ages, where the clergy and nobility counterbalanced as a result of mutual rivalry.
From the middle of the 1860s the privileged position ofBaltic Germans in the Russian Empire began to waver. Already during the reign ofNicholas I (1825–55), who was under pressure from Russian nationalists, some sporadic steps had been taken towards the russification of the provinces. Later, the Baltic Germans faced fierce attacks from the Russian nationalist press, which accused the Baltic aristocracy of separatism, and advocated closer linguistic and administrative integration with Russia.
Social division was based on the dominance of the Baltic Germans, who formed the upper classes, while the majority of the indigenous populations, calledUndeutsch ("non-German"), composed the peasantry. In the Imperial census of 1897, 98,573 Germans (7.58% of total population) lived in theGovernorate of Livonia, 51,017 (7.57%) in the Governorate of Curonia, and 16,037 (3.89%) in theGovernorate of Estonia.[13] The social changes faced by the emancipation, both social and national, of the Estonians and Latvians were not taken seriously by the Baltic German gentry. The provisional government of Russia after 1917 revolution gave the Estonians and Latviansself-governance which meant the end of the Baltic German era in Baltics.
The Lithuanian gentry consisted mainly ofLithuanians who, due to strong ties to Poland, had been culturally Polonized. After theUnion of Lublin in 1569, they became less distinguishable from Polishszlachta, though they did preserveLithuanian national awareness.
InHungary during the late 19th and early 20th century gentry (sometimes spelled asdzsentri) were nobility without land who often sought employment as civil servants, army officers, or went into politics.[14]
In the history of thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, "gentry" is often used in English to describe thePolish landed gentry (Polish:ziemiaństwo, ziemianie, fromziemia, "land"). They were the lesser members of the nobility (theszlachta), contrasting with the much smaller but more powerful group of "magnate" families (sing.magnat, pluralmagnaci in Polish), theMagnates of Poland and Lithuania. Compared to the situation in England and some other parts of Europe, these two parts of the overall "nobility" to a large extent operated as different classes, and were often in conflict. After thePartitions of Poland, at least in the stereotypes of 19th-century nationalist lore, the magnates often made themselves at home in the capitals and courts of the partitioning powers, while the gentry remained on their estates, keeping the national culture alive.
From the 15th century, only theszlachta, and a few patrician burghers from some cities, were allowed to own rural estates of any size, as part of the very extensiveszlachta privileges. These restrictions were reduced or removed after the Partitions of Poland, and commoner landowners began to emerge. By the 19th century, there were at least 60,000szlachta families, most rather poor, and many no longer owning land.[15] By then the "gentry" included many non-noble landowners.
InSpanish nobility and former Portuguese nobility, seehidalgos andinfanzones.
In Sweden, there was no outrightserfdom. Hence, the gentry was a class of well-off citizens that had grown from the wealthier or more powerful members of the peasantry. The two historically legally privilegedclasses in Sweden were the Swedish nobility(Adeln), a rather small group numerically, and theclergy, which were part of the so-calledfrälse (a classification defined by tax exemptions and representation in thediet).
At the head of the Swedish clergy stood the Archbishop of Uppsala since 1164. The clergy encompassed almost all the educated men of the day and furthermore was strengthened by considerable wealth, and thus it came naturally to play a significant political role. Until the Reformation, the clergy was the first estate but was relegated to the secular estate in the Protestant North Europe.
In the Middle Ages, celibacy in theCatholic Church had been a natural barrier to the formation of an hereditary priestly class. After compulsory celibacy was abolished in Sweden during theReformation, the formation of a hereditary priestly class became possible, whereby wealth and clerical positions were frequently inheritable. Hence the bishops and the vicars, who formed the clerical upper class, would frequently havemanors similar to those of other country gentry. Hence continued the medieval Church legacy of the intermingling between noble class and clerical upper class and the intermarriage as the distinctive element in several Nordic countries after the Reformation.
Surnames in Sweden can be traced to the 15th century, when they were first used by the Gentry (Frälse), i.e., priests and nobles. The names of these were usually in Swedish, Latin, German or Greek.
The adoption of Latin names was first used by the Catholic clergy in the 15th century. The given name was preceded by Herr (Sir), such as Herr Lars, Herr Olof, Herr Hans, followed by a Latinized form ofpatronymic names, e.g., Lars Petersson Latinized as Laurentius Petri. Starting from the time of the Reformation, the Latinized form of their birthplace (Laurentius Petri Gothus, from Östergötland) became a common naming practice for the clergy.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, the surname was only rarely the original family name of the ennobled; usually, a more imposing new name was chosen. This was a period which produced a myriad of two-word Swedish-language family names for the nobility (very favored prefixes were Adler, "eagle"; Ehren – "ära", "honor"; Silfver, "silver"; and Gyllen, "golden"). The regular difference with Britain was that it became the new surname of the whole house, and the old surname was dropped altogether.
TheWestern Ukrainian Clergy of theUkrainian Greek Catholic Church were a hereditary tight-knit social caste that dominated western Ukrainian society from the late eighteenth until the mid-20th centuries, following the reforms instituted byJoseph II, Holy Roman Emperor. Because, like theirEastern Orthodox brethren, Ukrainian Catholic priests could marry, they were able to establish "priestly dynasties", often associated with specific regions, for many generations. Numbering approximately 2,000–2,500 by the 19th century, priestly families tended to marry within their group, constituting a tight-knit hereditary caste.[16] In the absence of a significant native nobility and enjoying a virtual monopoly on education and wealth within western Ukrainian society, the clergy came to form that group's native aristocracy. The clergy adopted Austria's role for them as bringers of culture and education to the Ukrainian countryside. Most Ukrainian social and political movements in Austrian-controlled territory emerged or were highly influenced by the clergy themselves or by their children. This influence was so great that western Ukrainians were accused of wanting to create a theocracy in western Ukraine by their Polish rivals.[17] The central role played by the Ukrainian clergy or their children in western Ukrainian society would weaken somewhat at the end of the 19th century but would continue until the mid-20th century.
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TheAmerican gentry were rich landowning members of theAmerican upper class in the colonial South.
TheColonial American use ofgentry was not common. Historians use it to refer to rich landowners in the South before 1776. Typically large scale landowners rented out farms to white tenant farmers. North of Maryland, there were few large comparable rural estates, except in the Dutch domains in theHudson Valley of New York.[18][19]
The British upper classes consist of two sometimes overlapping entities, thepeerage andlanded gentry. In the British peerage, only the senior family member (typically the eldest son) inherits a substantive title (duke, marquess, earl, viscount, baron); these are referred to as peers or lords. The rest of the nobility form part of the "landed gentry" (abbreviated "gentry"). The members of the gentry usually bear no titles but can be described as esquire or gentleman. Exceptions are the eldest sons of peers, who bear their fathers' inferior titles as "courtesy titles" (but for Parliamentary purposes count as commoners),Scottish barons (who bear the designation Baron of X after their name)[20] andbaronets (a title corresponding to a hereditary knighthood).Scottish lairds do not have a title of nobility but may have a description of their lands in the form of aterritorial designation that forms part of their name.[21]
The landed gentry is a traditional Britishsocial class consisting ofgentlemen in the original sense; that is, those who owned land in the form ofcountry estates to such an extent that they were not required to actively work, except in an administrative capacity on their own lands. The estates were often (but not always) made up oftenanted farms, in which case the gentleman could live entirely offrent income. Gentlemen, ranking below esquires and above yeomen, form the lowest rank of British nobility. It is the lowest rank to which the descendants of a Knight, Baronet or Peer can sink. Strictly speaking, anybody with officially matriculated English or Scottish arms is a gentleman and thus noble.
The termlanded gentry, although originally used to mean nobility, came to be used for the lesser nobility in England around 1540. Once identical, these terms eventually became complementary. The termgentry by itself, as commonly used by historians, according toPeter Coss, is a construct applied loosely to rather different societies. Any particular model may not fit a specific society, yet a single definition nevertheless remains desirable.[22][23] Titles, while often considered central to the upper class, are not strictly so. Both CaptainMark Phillips and Vice Admiral SirTimothy Laurence, the respective first and second husbands ofAnne, Princess Royal, lacked any rank of peerage at the time of their marriage to Princess Anne. However, the backgrounds of both men were considered to be essentially patrician, and they were thus deemed[by whom?] suitable husbands for a princess.
Esquire (abbreviated Esq.) is a term derived from the Old French word "escuier" (which also gave equerry) and is in the United Kingdom the second-lowest designation for a nobleman, referring only to males, and used to denote a high but indeterminate social status. The most common occurrence of termEsquire today is the conferral as the suffixEsq. in order to pay an informal compliment to a male recipient by way of implyinggentle birth. In the post-medieval world, the title ofesquire came to apply to all men of the higher landed gentry; an esquire ranked socially above a gentleman but below a knight. In the modern world, where all men are assumed to be gentlemen, the term has often been extended (albeit only in very formal writing) to all men without any higher title. It is used post-nominally, usually in abbreviated form (for example, "Thomas Smith, Esq.").
Aknight could refer to either a medieval tenant who gave military service as a mounted man-at-arms to a feudal landholder, or a medieval gentleman-soldier, usually high-born, raised by a sovereign to privileged military status after training as a page and squire (for a contemporary reference, seeBritish honours system). In formal protocol,Sir is the correctstyling for a knight or for a baronet, used with (one of) the knight'sgiven name(s) or full name, but not with thesurname alone. The equivalent for a woman who holds the title in her own right isDame; for such women, the titleDame is used asSir for a man, never before the surname on its own. This usage was devised[by whom?] in 1917, derived from the practice, up to the 17th century (and still also in legal proceedings), for the wife of a knight. The wife of a knight or baronet is now styled "Lady [husband's surname]".
The "Storm over the gentry" was a major historiographical debate among scholars that took place in the 1940s and 1950s regarding the role of the gentry in causing theEnglish Civil War of the 17th century.[24]R. H. Tawney had suggested in 1941 that there was a major economic crisis for the nobility in the 16th and 17th centuries, and that the rapidly rising gentry class was demanding a share of power. When the aristocracy resisted, Tawney argued, the gentry launched the civil war.[25] After heated debate, historians generally concluded that the role of the gentry was not especially important.[26]
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The Irish gentry, often referred to as the Anglo-Irish Ascendancy, emerged as a dominant landowning class during British rule in Ireland. Comprising Protestant elites, they held significant political and social influence while overseeing vast estates. The Irish gentry also played a key role in shaping cultural and literary traditions, as seen with families like theFitzgeralds andButlers. However, their prominence waned afterIrish independence andland reforms.
The 'four divisions of society' refers to themodel of society in ancient China and was ameritocraticsocial class system in China and other subsequently influencedConfucian societies. The four castes—gentry, farmers, artisans and merchants—are combined to form the term Shìnónggōngshāng (士農工商).
Gentry (士) means different things in different countries. In China, Korea, and Vietnam, this meant that the Confucian scholar gentry that would – for the most part – make up most of the bureaucracy. This caste would comprise both the more-or-less hereditary aristocracy as well as the meritocratic scholars that rise through the rank by public service and, later, by imperial exams. Some sources, such asXunzi, list farmers before the gentry, based on the Confucian view that they directly contributed to the welfare of the state. In China, the farmer lifestyle is also closely linked with the ideals of Confucian gentlemen.
In Japan, this caste essentially equates to the samurai class.
There were two leading classes, i.e. the gentry, in the time of feudal Japan: thedaimyō and thesamurai. The Confucian ideals in the Japanese culture emphasised the importance of productive members of society, so farmers and fishermen were considered of a higher status than merchants.
In theEdo period, with the creation of theDomains (han) under the rule ofTokugawa Ieyasu, all land was confiscated and reissued as fiefdoms to thedaimyōs.
The small lords, the samurai (武士,bushi), were ordered either to give up their swords and rights and remain on their lands as peasants or to move to the castle cities to become paid retainers of thedaimyōs. Only a few samurai were allowed to remain in the countryside; the landed samurai (郷士,gōshi). Some 5 per cent of the population were samurai. Only the samurai could have proper surnames, something that after theMeiji Restoration became compulsory to all inhabitants (seeJapanese name).
Emperor Meiji abolished the samurai's right to be the only armed force in favor of a more modern, Western-style, conscripted army in 1873. Samurai becameShizoku (士族), but the right to wear a katana in public was eventually abolished along with the right toexecute commoners who paid them disrespect.
In defining how a modern Japan should be, members of the Meiji government decided to follow in the footsteps of the United Kingdom and Germany, basing the country on the concept ofnoblesse oblige. Samurai were not to be a political force under the new order. The difference between the Japanese and European feudal systems was that European feudalism was grounded inRoman legal structure while Japan feudalism had ChineseConfucian morality as its basis.[27]
Korean monarchy and the native ruling upper class existed inKorea until the end of theJapanese occupation. The system concerning the nobility is roughly the same as that of theChinese nobility.
As the monastical orders did during Europe'sDark Ages, the Buddhist monks became the purveyors and guardians of Korea's literary traditions while documenting Korea's written history and legacies from theSilla period to the end of theGoryeo dynasty. Korean Buddhist monks also developed and used the first movable metal type printing presses in history—some 500 years beforeJohannes Gutenberg—to print ancientBuddhist texts. Buddhist monks also engaged in record keeping, food storage and distribution, as well as the ability to exercise power by influencing the Goryeo royal court.
In theOttomanMiddle East, the gentry consisted ofnotables, ora'yan.[28] The a'yan consisted of two groups: urban and rural gentries. Urban elites were traditionally made of city-dwellingmerchants (tujjar),[29] clerics ('ulema),ashraf,military officers, and governmentalfunctionaries.[30][31][32] The rural notability's ranks included ruralsheikhs and village or clanmukhtars. Most notables originated in, and belonged to, thefellahin (peasantry) class, forming a lower-echelonland-owning gentry in the Empire's post-Tanzimat countryside and emergent towns.[33] In Palestine, rural notables form the majority of Palestinianelites, although certainly not the richest.[34] Rural notables took advantage of changing legal, administrative and political conditions, andglobal economic realities, to achieve ascendancy usinghouseholds,marriage alliances andnetworks of patronage.[34] Over all, they played a leading role in the development of modern Palestine and other countries well into the late 20th century.[35]
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Historically, the nobles in Europe became soldiers; the aristocracy in Europe can trace their origins to military leaders from themigration period and the Middle Ages. For many years, the British Army, together with the Church, was seen as the ideal career for the younger sons of the aristocracy. Although now much diminished, the practice has not totally disappeared. Such practices are not unique to the British either geographically or historically. As a very practical form of displaying patriotism, it has been at times fashionable for "gentlemen" to participate in the military.
The fundamental idea of gentry had come to be that of the essential superiority of the fighting man, usually maintained in the granting of arms.[36] At the last, the wearing of a sword on all occasions was the outward and visible sign of a "gentleman"; the custom survives in the sword worn with "court dress". A suggestion that a gentleman must have a coat of arms was vigorously advanced by certain 19th- and 20th-century heraldists, notablyArthur Charles Fox-Davies in England andThomas Innes of Learney in Scotland. The significance of a right to a coat of arms was that it was definitive proof of the status of gentleman, but it recognised rather than conferred such a status, and the status could be and frequently was accepted without a right to a coat of arms.
Chivalry[b] is a term related to the medieval institution ofknighthood. It is usually associated with ideals ofknightly virtues,honour andcourtly love.
Christianity had a modifying influence on the virtues of chivalry, with limits placed on knights to protect and honour the weaker members of society and maintain peace. The church became more tolerant of war in the defence of faith, espousing theories of thejust war. In the 11th century, the concept of a "knight of Christ" (miles Christi) gained currency in France, Spain and Italy.[37] These concepts of "religious chivalry" were further elaborated in the era of theCrusades.[37]
In the later Middle Ages, wealthy merchants strove to adopt chivalric attitudes.[37] This was a democratisation of chivalry, leading to a new genre called thecourtesy book, which were guides to the behaviour of "gentlemen".[37]
When examiningmedieval literature, chivalry can be classified into three basic but overlapping areas:
These three areas obviously overlap quite frequently in chivalry and are often indistinguishable. Another classification of chivalry divides it into warrior, religious and courtly love strands. One particular similarity between all three of these categories is honour. Honour is the foundational and guiding principle of chivalry. Thus, for the knight, honour would be one of the guides of action.
The term gentleman (from Latingentilis, belonging to a race orgens, and "man",cognate with the French wordgentilhomme, the Spanishgentilhombre and the Italiangentil uomo orgentiluomo), in its original and strict signification, denoted a man of good family, analogous to the Latingenerosus (its invariable translation in English-Latin documents). In this sense the word equates with the Frenchgentilhomme ("nobleman"), which was in Great Britain long confined to the peerage. The termgentry (from the Old Frenchgenterise forgentelise) has much of the social-class significance of the Frenchnoblesse or of the GermanAdel, but without the strict technical requirements of those traditions (such asquarters of nobility). To a degree,gentleman signified a man with an income derived fromlanded property, alegacy or some other source and was thus independently wealthy and did not need to work.
TheFar East also held similar ideas to the West of what a gentleman is, which are based onConfucian principles. The termJūnzǐ (君子) is a term crucial to classical Confucianism. Literally meaning "son of a ruler", "prince" or "noble", the ideal of a "gentleman", "proper man", "exemplary person", or "perfect man" is that for which Confucianism exhorts all people to strive. A succinct description of the "perfect man" is one who "combine[s] the qualities of saint, scholar, and gentleman" (CE). A hereditary elitism was bound up with the concept, and gentlemen were expected to act as moral guides to the rest of society. They were to:
The opposite of theJūnzǐ was theXiǎorén (小人), literally "small person" or "petty person". Like English "small", the word in this context in Chinese can mean petty in mind and heart, narrowly self-interested, greedy, superficial, and materialistic.
The idea ofnoblesse oblige, "nobility obliges", among gentry is, as theOxford English Dictionary expresses, that the term "suggests noble ancestry constrains to honorable behaviour; privilege entails to responsibility". Being a noble meant that one had responsibilities to lead, manage and so on. One was not to simply spend one's time in idle pursuits.
A coat of arms is a heraldic device dating to the 12th century in Europe. It was originally a cloth tunic worn over or in place of armour to establish identity in battle.[38] The coat of arms is drawn with heraldic rules for a person, family or organisation. Family coats of arms were originally derived from personal ones, which then became extended in time to the whole family. In Scotland, family coats of arms are still personal ones and are mainly used by the head of the family. In heraldry, a person entitled to a coat of arms is anarmiger, and their family would be armigerous.[citation needed]
Ecclesiastical heraldry is the tradition of heraldry developed by Christian clergy. Initially used to mark documents, ecclesiastical heraldry evolved as a system for identifying people anddioceses. It is most formalised within the Catholic Church, where mostbishops, including thepope, have a personalcoat of arms. Clergy inAnglican,Lutheran,Eastern Catholic andOrthodox churches follow similar customs.
At least 60,000 families belong to this class [nobility], of which, however, only about 100 are wealthy; all the rest are poor.
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