Chapter 7 - The lesser aristocracy

Summary

STATUS AND CONCERNS

The status and concerns of the milites

Chroniclers usually noticed only the frontier magnates, paying little attention to the lesser barons and knights who held land from them or formed their entourages. Yet the growth in standing, wealth and power of lignages chevaleresques has been widely noted in twelfth-century western Europe. In regions of France as far apart as Burgundy and the Vendômois, the milites castri were moving from castle garrisons to country manors, where they fortified their manor houses; they adopted toponymic surnames, although these often referred not to their own fortress but to that of the lord in whose service they had established themselves; and they sometimes secured their position by lucrative marriages into the noble families which they served. They increasingly adopted the title of dominus, although their dominion was a village or manor rather than a castelry. In Lower Maine, for instance, the number of families using the title of dominus increased five or six times between 1170 and 1250, and the new domini were some of the chief beneficiaries of land clearance and the foundation of new villages. Throughout western Europe, the spread of the seigneurial title also reflected the growing confidence of the lesser aristocracy. In England members of this ‘gentry’ class were soon to play an important and often remarkably independent part in the Magna Carta revolt. Conversely, the title of ‘knight’ began to be adopted as a sobriquet by the great nobles.