SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



were estimated at nearly ^400. 1M Even allowing for the fact that the rents 

 had on the average increased sixfold, these figures imply an absolute increase 

 in the estates themselves above those existing at the beginning of the i6th 

 century. 



With the growth of wealth arose a class of absentee landlords, increased 

 by those merchants and tradesmen who had invested in Nottinghamshire land. 

 In 1625, the resident gentry complained that their number had been much 

 diminished ; they had been bought out by citizens ; many manors were in 

 the hands of ' foreigners,' such as the Earl of Devonshire or Mr. Soames, 

 alderman of London. Such manors were said to be worth annually 5,000 

 or 6,000 a year. 163 The point of the complaint lay in the heavy burden thus 

 inflicted on the remaining gentry by local duties and central taxation. But 

 the increased burdens also implied increased influence. This had been 

 growing throughout the 1 6th century. The fall of the monasteries had left 

 the resident gentry without rivals. Sir John Markham, it was said in 1539, 

 * ruled all the country round Newark.' 164 In the muster above mentioned 

 Sir John Byron furnished twenty men from among his personal attendants, 

 another gentleman appeared with fourteen, and various other landholders 

 furnished six or seven. 



The distance of Nottinghamshire magnates from the central authority 

 left them free to pursue their quarrels unchecked, and breaches of the peace 

 were not uncommon. In 1592, at a violently contested election at Notting- 

 ham, Sir Thomas Stanhope brought all his tenants armed. 165 Between the 

 Stanhopes and the Cavendishes there had long been a feud. In 1599 Sir 

 Charles Cavendish and three or four men were assaulted by John Stanhope 

 and his company in Sherwood Forest. Two men (one an unlucky keeper 

 whom Stanhope had impressed that morning) were killed, and three others 

 wounded. 166 Stanhope himself fled. But the government, apparently uncon- 

 cerned, bound over both combatants to keep the peace, and a little later 

 conferred a post in the forest on John Stanhope. 167 



The landholders of Nottinghamshire, however, were not wholly occupied 

 in making war on their neighbours. On their shoulders, as justices of the 

 peace, devolved most of the public responsibilities of the county, and they 

 seem to have exercised their functions with considerable zeal. Their 

 task, as the i6th century drew to its close, was proving a difficult one. 

 Despite the increase of trade already mentioned Nottinghamshire seems to 

 have been falling somewhat behind the rest of England. Between 1341 and 

 1453, it had risen from the twenty-fifth to the twentieth place among 

 English counties. In 1503 it had sunk to the twenty-first, and it remained 

 in this position throughout the i6th century. In the ship-money assessments 

 it is still twenty-first, but there were many complaints of the undue heaviness 

 of the burden. In 1641 it had sunk to the twenty-ninth place. 168 Further, 

 in spite of enhanced prices, the condition of the tenants in Notting- 

 hamshire was probably less favourable towards the end of the i6th century. 

 The scarcity of money which marked the time seems to have borne hardly 



161 S. P. Dom. Eliz. cclxi, 85. l63 Ibid. Chas. I, x, 61. 



>u L. and P. Hen. Vlll, xiv (i), 295. 



165 W. D. Rastall, Hiit. of Southwell, ii, 129. 



IM Cal. S.P. Dom. 1598-1601, pp. 222-3. 1W Ibid. p. 357 



'* Thorold Rogers, Hist, of Agric. y Prices, iv, 88, 89 ; v, 118. 



287 



