History 2403E Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Society 1, English Longbow, Plate Armour
2 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
September 26th, 2017
Crown and Nobles
Most people lived in cities or villages (most of western Europe)
Essentially Commoners
Division of European society
1. Those who worked (villages and cities)
2. Those who fought (crown and nobles)
3. Those who pray (clergy)
Sense of universal organization had consequences for how people organized their social world
Very strong sense that people are born into a particular place in society
God had a role for you to fulfill
Notion of 3-part society begins
Very exclusive and privileged place in that society, the nobility
Ranks included kings, queens, emperors, dukes, knights, princes, princess, barons,
Represented about 5% of Europeans
Control most of the wealth and the land that generated that land
Characteristics of Nobles as a Group
- Blood lines
o preeminent and position of society rooted in their blood lines
o social influence and status rooted in their family tries
▪ how far back and to whom could you trace your ancestry
- For sale
o Nobility increasingly for sale
o Nobles of the Sword vs. Nobles of the Robe
▪ Sword: ancient families
• Based on blood lines
• Loathe the Robe
o A watering down of the social pool
• Restrict their advancements
▪ Robe
• Bought their way into nobility
• Do everything they can to climb their way up
▪ See a tension between these two groups
o Monarchs of various states were perpetually strapped for cash
▪ Never enough money
o A means of alleviating financial woes, begin to sell titles of nobility
▪ Sell to people like the merchants
• A small but growing group of people who have massed
extraordinary amounts of money
• Have no social influence in terms of government or place in society
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
▪ An exchange
• Kings need money and merchants need status
▪ Cannot buy your way into upper ranks of nobility
• Buy your way into the bottom row, knighthood
• Climb through marriage
- World of both Privilege and Responsibility
o Defense // No Taxes and Jury of Their Peers
Two main privileges:
1. Nobles don’t pay taxes
I. Use the common people for every penny that they can get out of them
2. If charged with a crime, have the right to be tried by a Jury of your Peers
I. People of an equal social rank
II. Many powerful nobles virtually existed above the law
III. Unlike to be charged if victims were below them
3. Ready to go to War
I. Nations existed as ideas rather than reality
a. Flexible and fluid national entities
II. Nobles responsible for defending the land and local territories and land
- Dynastic (Family) Motivations
o First loyalty is to their family and kin group
▪ always act in ways that privilege the interest of their family and dynasty
o interests of larger political are second
o unite families by marriage
▪ refuse to marry Nobles of the Robe below a certain rank
▪ marry kids to create a block of power
• an effective strategy
▪ see intermarriage
• only way to bind alliances
o late 17th C. most powerful families in Europe experience serious genetic side effects
The ‘Prince’
- refers to all the monarch as a group
- all princes are nobles but not are nobles are princes
- by definition: part of the nobility
- but not nobleman have made it to the rank or princes
THEME: How did the power of the centralized government emerge and take shape during the
early modern era?
- Make national policies
o Things don’t exist as a nation
o Prince sets the direction for that particularly territory
▪ Make and enforce laws without the help of internal check and balance
▪ Most territories had a limiting factor
• All but Russia
o Commander of chief of national armies
▪ To the extent that they exist
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Most people lived in cities or villages (most of western europe) Division of european society: those who worked (villages and cities, those who fought (crown and nobles, those who pray (clergy) Very strong sense that people are born into a particular place in society. God had a role for you to fulfill. Sense of universal organization had consequences for how people organized their social world. Very exclusive and privileged place in that society, the nobility. Ranks included kings, queens, emperors, dukes, knights, princes, princess, barons, Control most of the wealth and the land that generated that land. Blood lines: preeminent and position of society rooted in their blood lines, social influence and status rooted in their family tries, how far back and to whom could you trace your ancestry. World of both privilege and responsibility: defense // no taxes and jury of their peers.
