Landed gentry

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:

Landed gentry (disambiguation)

The term Landed gentry usually refers to a privileged social class in the United Kingdom.

Landed gentry may also refer to:

See also

Polish landed gentry

Polish landed gentry (Polish: ziemiaństwo, ziemianie, from ziemia, "land") historically was a social group of hereditary landowners who held manorial estates. Historically ziemianie consisted of hereditary nobles and landed commoners. The Constitution of 1496 restricted the right to hold manorial lordships to the hereditary nobility proper only. The non-noble landed gentry thus had to either sell their estates to the lords or seek a formal ennoblement for themselves. A rare exception was the burgesses of certain specially privileged "ennobled" royal cities who were titled "nobilis" and were allowed to buy and inherit manorial estates and exercise their privileges (such as jurisdiction over their subjects) and monopolies (over distilleries, hunting grounds, etc.). Thus, in the Nobility Commonwealth there was almost no landed-gentry in the narrow, English meaning of the term, i.e. commoners who own land estates. With the Partitions these restrictions were loosened and finally any commoner could buy or inherit a landed estate. This made the 20th century Polish landed gentry consist mostly of hereditary nobles but also of gentry in the narrow sense.