The English Gentry and Military Service, 1300–1450

Abstract

The period 1300–1450 has been seen by historians as crucial to the formation of the English social class, which would become known as the gentry. This was also a period when England was heavily engaged in warfare, with the Anglo‐Scottish wars and the Hundred Years War against France. The essay will survey the various approaches historians have taken to assess the changing relationship between concepts of gentility, the gentry and military service in late‐medieval England. It will discuss the contribution of research into subjects such as heraldry and the county community; how the question relates to the slowly reviving debate about ‘bastard feudalism’; and the impact of computer databases on research.