Welsh Journals

things, but they are not all born equal. Primacy of materials is admirable, but the historian must look for something therein, otherwise he will be lost in the wilderness of meaningless facts. s. B. CHRIMES Cardiff THE COUNTRY GENTRY IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE HERALDIC ROLLS OF ARMS. By N. Denholm-Young. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1969. Pp. xii, 175. 40s. In a direct sense this volume continues the study which Dr. Denholm- Young commenced in his History and Heraldry (1965). For those whose interests are primarily heraldic there is much to be learned from it about the development of the herald's office in a transitional phase, the character of the rolls of arms and that distinctive English invention, the Ordinary of Arms. The evidence offered by heraldic records to the general historian of the later middle ages, however, was greatly enlarged by one change which took place during the fourteenth century. By c. 1370 the title 'esquire' was ceasing to imply personal service upon a lord or banneret; a much larger section of the country gentry was being admitted to the armigerous ranks; and heraldic materials, therefore, can contribute towards a directory of country gentlemen. This fact explains the scope of Dr. Denholm- Young's book. The classes of men which range all the way from 'belted knights' to up-and- coming franklins were more than an important segment of English society about which too little as yet is known. The point is well made that 'the country gentry of the fourteenth century were very rarely gentlemen of leisure'. They were found in the 'peaceful service of magnates'; they made their way in the king's service (even as judges, soldiers and ministers of state rolled into one, as the Scropes did); they provided the administrative service of the counties. Furthermore, they were developing as a political interest in parliament, where country squires who were 'old parliamentary hands' were now familiar enough. There is no exaggeration in Dr. Denholm-Young's claim that his concern is with the social background of the English government at work. To the development of this theme he brings a wealth of circumstancial detail (including some which shows how the appointment of non-resident sheriffs and justiciars in Wales opened the way for the rise of the Welsh gentry). His canvas is large, however, and inevitably some problems are raised rather than definitively solved. One important matter, for example, is the size of the class of country gentry. He suggests a figure of 18-20,000 on the basis of allocating 1-3 lords to each of the c. 9,000 vills recorded in the Nomina Villarum of 1316. A sample survey of this evidence for Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire and fifteen Hampshire hundreds may