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Landed gentry is a largely historical privileged British social class consisting of land owners who could live entirely from rental income. They often worked as administrators of their own lands, while others became public, political and armed forces figures. The decline of the class largely stemmed from the 1870s agricultural depression. The term "gentry," some of whom were landed gentry, included four separate groups in England:〔Canon, John, The Oxford Companion to British History, p. 405 under the heading "Gentry" (Oxford University Press, 1997)〕 # Baronets: a hereditary title originally created by King James in 1611 giving the holder the right to be addressed as "Sir" as if they were knights; # Knights: originally a military rank, this status was increasingly awarded to civilians as a reward for service to the Crown. Holders have the right to be addressed as "Sir". # Esquires: originally men aspiring to knighthood, were the principal attendants on a knight. After the Middle Ages the title of Esquire became an honour that could be conferred by the Crown, and by custom the holders of certain offices (such as barristers, justices of the peace, and higher officer ranks in the armed services) were deemed to be Esquires. # Gentlemen: possessors of a social status recognised as a separate title by the Statute of Additions of 1413. Generally men of high birth or rank, good social standing, and wealth, who did not need to work for a living, were considered gentlemen. The designation landed gentry originally referred exclusively to members of the upper class who were landowners and also commoners in the British sense, that is, they did not hold peerages, but usage became more fluid over time. Similar or analogous social systems of landed gentry also sprang up in many British colonies such as the Colony of Virginia and some parts of India. By the late 19th century, the term was also applied to peers such as the Duke of Westminster who lived on landed estates. The book series ''Burke's Landed Gentry'' recorded the members of this class. Successful burghers often used their accumulated wealth to buy country estates, with the aim of establishing themselves as landed gentry. Persons who are closely related to peers are also more correctly described as gentry than as nobility, since the latter term, in the modern British Isles, is synonymous with "peer". However, this popular usage of 'nobility' omits the distinction between titled and untitled nobility. The titled nobility in Britain are the peers of the realm, whereas the untitled nobility comprise those here described as gentry.〔.〕 That the untitled nobility exists in the United Kingdom in a legal if not popular sense can be seen in the fact that British armigerous families who hold no title of nobility are represented together with those who hold titles through the College of Arms by the Commission and Association for Armigerous Families of Great Britain at CILANE.〔.〕 ==Origin of the term== The term ''landed gentry'', although originally used to mean nobility, came to be used of the lesser nobility in England around 1540. Once identical, eventually these terms became complementary, in the sense that their definitions began to fill in parts of what the other lacked. The historical term ''gentry'' by itself, so Peter Coss argues, is a construct that historians have applied loosely to rather different societies. Any particular model may not fit a specific society, yet a single definition nevertheless remains desirable.〔(Michael Hicks, review of The Origins of the English Gentry, (review no. 402) )〕〔(Cambridge University Press 0521021006 - The Origins of the English Gentry Peter Coss )〕 The phrase ''landed gentry'' referred in particular to the untitled members of the landowning upper class. The most stable and respected form of wealth has historically been land, and great prestige and political qualifications were (and to a lesser extent still are) attached to land ownership. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Landed gentry」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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