Editing Yeoman (section)

==== Up to 1500 ====
{{See also|Parliament of 1327|Estates of the realm|Feudalism in England|English society#Late medieval society|England in the Late Middle Ages|Hundred Years War|Black Death|Peasants' Revolt}}
<!-- explain here why the freeholders were a social stratum, not a social class; "class" is an anachronism (feudalism decayed slowly) -->
<!-- discussion of the decline of the Three Estates, the rising influence of commoners, as evidenced by establishment of the House of Commons, which included the Knights of the Shire (rural) & the Burgesses (urban) -->
<!-- incl case study: William of Wykeham -->
<!-- regional: Gloucestershire -->
The parliament of 1327 was a watershed event. For the first time since the [[Norman Conquest]], an English king was disposed peaceably, and not usurped by military means. Although [[Edward II]] had been previously threatened with deposition in 1310 and 1321, all those who attended the parliament of 1327 were aware of the constitutional crisis. The king was imprisoned by his [[Isabella of France|Queen Isabella]] and her paramour [[Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March|Roger Mortimer]] after their [[Invasion of England (1326)|invasion of England]]. The Parliament was a legal pretense to confer legitimacy upon their actions. The [[Lords Temporal]] and the [[Lords Spiritual]] were summoned in the King's name, while the [[Knights of the Shire]], [[Burgess (title)|Burgesses]] from the towns, and representatives from the [[Cinque Ports]] were elected to attend.<ref>(Note 13: Richardson and Sayles 1930 p 44–45)</ref> According to Michael Prestwich: "What was necessary was to ensure that every conceivable means of removing the King was adopted, and the procedures combined all possible precedents".{{Citation needed|date=October 2021}} Hence, establishing the legitimacy of Edward III was paramount. But it was the Knights of the Shire and Burgesses (hereafter referred to as ''the commons'') who drove the proceedings, both before and after Edward III's coronation.<ref name=2009_Payling/> Beginning in 1327, the commons became a permanent part of parliament.

[[File:Cleric-Knight-Workman.jpg|thumb|13th-century French depiction of the Three Estates: (1) those who pray (shown as a cleric); (2) those who fight (shown as a knight); and (3) those who work (shown as a peasant).]]
In the 14th century, the name commons did not have its modern meaning of ''common people''. It referred to ''the communities'', which was ''les Communs'' in [[Anglo-Norman language|Anglo-Norman French]]. The word meant that those elected to the parliament were representatives of their communities, that is, the shires and the urban areas.<ref name="Commons as law makers"/> To distinguish between this early assembly from the later House of Commons, ''the commons'' is used herein.
The commons included the [[Proctor#England|proctors]] of the lesser [[Clergy#Christianity|clergy]] as members of the sessions. In 1333, the commons sat together in a single chamber for the first time. About this same time, the commons was evolving into its role of legislating taxation. The king preferred to include taxes on clerical income with the direct taxes on the [[laity]]. The church hierarchy (archbishops and bishops) considered that no secular authority had the right to enforce tax collection from clerical income in a secular court. Such cases, they thought, should be considered in an of law. In 1340, the bishops negotiated a settlement with the Crown, wherein disputes between the king and clergy over taxation would be heard in ecclesiastical courts at either Canterbury or York. Therefore, there was no longer a need for the proctors to attend the commons. This was an important milestone for the commons. It became a secular assembly, its deliberations unaffected by ecclesiastical concerns. In 1342, the commons reorganized itself as the House of Commons, deliberating separately from the king, nobles and higher clergy of noble status. Each county had two Knights of the Shire as representatives, except for Durham and Cheshire, which were [[county palatine]]s.

Initially, the Knights of the Shire were selected from among the [[Knight Bachelor|belted knights]].<ref name=2009_Payling/><ref name="Rise of Commons"/>
<!-- continue w/evolution of KoS: belted knights -> esquires -> yeomen of substance -->

[[Anthony Wagner|Sir Anthony Richard Wagner]], Garter Principal [[King of Arms]], wrote that "a Yeoman would not normally have less than 100 acres" (40 hectares) "and in social status is one step down from the [[Landed gentry]], but above, say, a [[husbandman]]".<ref>Wagner, Sir Anthony R., ''English Genealogy'', Oxford University Press, 1960, pp. 125–130.</ref> Often it was hard to distinguish minor landed gentry from the wealthier yeomen, and wealthier husbandmen from the poorer yeomen.