landed gentry
Landowning leisured class
Landed gentry refers to a social class of wealthy landowners who derive income and status from hereditary estates rather than trade or professional work.
The term is especially associated with British history, describing families below the nobility but above common farmers—squires, country gentlemen, and their kin.
The landed gentry dominated rural politics for centuries.
- manorial rightsLord's feudal estate powers
- primogenitureEldest inherits all
- entailmentLogical necessity from premises
- tenant farmingAgriculture on leased property
- tenant farmerOne who leases farmland
estate · country estate · family seat · patrician · hereditary titles · baronetcy · manor house · stately homes · elite · upper class · society · servants · coat of arms · dowager · yeoman · feudalism · lineage · inheritance
- medievalknights, castles, cathedral, kings, queens
- 1700sMozart, Voltaire, colonial period, French Revolution, William III
- British aristocracyduke, duchess, earl, countess, baron
- eliteselites, plutocrats, oligarchs, aristocrats, blue bloods
- high societygossip, socialites, socialite, aristocrats, aristocrat
- Medieval Nobilityking, queen, prince, princess, duke
landed gentrypeasantry
Rural working class
serfs · the poor · underclass · working class · commoners
landed gentrytenant farmers
Agriculturalists renting land
sharecroppers · agricultural workers · landless peasants · cottagers · squatters
landed gentrymerchant class
Traders as social group
bourgeoisie · tradesmen · merchants · industrialists · nouveau riche
land, gentleman, landed, landowner, gentry, gentlemen, landholding, landowners, landholdings