The Middle Ages
Language & Culture.
Society was still based upon rank. At the top were dukes, earls & other lords. Below these
were knights (most were not heavily armed fighters on horses, but ,,gentlemen farmers" or
,,landed gentry") who had increased their landholdings & improved farming methods. This
class had grown in numbers. Edward I had ordered that all those with income of L20 a year
must be made knights, so even some yeomen farmers became part of the ,,landed gentry",
while many ,,esquires" who had served knights, now became knights themselves. Next to the
gentlemen were ordinary freemen of the towns.
By the end of the Middle Ages it was possible for a serf to become a freeman if he worked for
7 years in a town craft guild. Town offered to poor men to become rich & successful. At the
same time many successful merchant families were obtaining farmland. In the beginning the
guilds protected the production or trade of a whole town, later they protected only those
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