When the Middle Ages ended in the 16th century, the Yeomen were more numerous, prosperous and important than at any other time, before or since. A constant motive in the literature of that time was that the Yeoman is the best kind of Englishman who keeps society together, does not cling to the high or despise his poorer, warm, hospitable and fearless neighbors. Today, the English countryside is full not only of Elizabethan villas, but also of more modest Tudor or early Stuart houses, which were once the homes of the petty nobility or the seats of the wealthy Freehold Yeomen. It was a great age for the rural middle class. The first documented use is in Middle English. [1] There are no known words in Old English that are considered acceptable parent words for Yeoman. [2] There is also no easily identifiable connection with yeoman in Anglo-Norman, Old Frisian, Old Dutch, Old Saxon or Middle Low German. [3] All of these languages are considered closely related to Old English at the time they were spoken. Taken together, these facts suggest that yeoman (1) is a word specific to regional dialects in England; and (2) has nothing comparable to any word used in continental Europe. The wealthiest Yeoman families in a village (the Yeo families?) probably filled the local roles and became beer tasters, jurors, Heuwards, constables, tithes, church rectors.
They could also have become the disciples of the masters and thus part of the households of the masters, and at some point the word became follower, servant, guardian, subordinate official. Their solution was to form volunteer units subject to military discipline. Even more radically, when they were called, they were paid. Cavalry units were to be recruited – at least theoretically – from among the Yeoman peasants. They owned horses, after all, so there was halfway. You did not expect the government to provide them, did you? The recruits also provided their own uniforms, but the government provided their weapons and ammunition. Cases of Yeoman in the naval context were rare before 1700. In 1509, the Office of Ordnance had a master, a clerk and a yeoman. [43] In 1608, a manuscript in the House of Lords mentions a naval gunner and a Yeoman.
[1] In 1669, The Mariner`s Magazine was published, dedicated to the Society of Merchant-Adventurers of the City of Bristol. Among the various chapters on the use of mathematics in shipping and shooting, the author suggests: “He [the gunner] must be careful when choosing a sober and honest man for the powder Yeoman.” [44] (modern spelling) In 1702, the actual titles of the sailors appeared in the London Gazette: Yeomen of the Sheets and Yeomen of the Powder Room. [1] “It`s full of little courtesy,” says the potter. “As I have heard sages say, when poor Yeoman crosses paths to keep him on his journey.” “With me, you are telling the truth,” Robin said. “You say good Yeomanry; And although you go every day, you won`t be held by me. Yeoman /ˈjoʊmən/ is a name that originally refers to either someone who owns and cultivates land, or mid-rank servants in an English royal or noble house. The term was first documented in England in the mid-14th century. The 14th century also saw the rise of the long-eyoman archer during the Hundred Years War and the Yeoman outlaws celebrated in the ballads of Robin Hood. Yeomen also joined the English Navy during the Hundred Years` War as a sailor and archer. The etymology of Yeoman is uncertain for several reasons. One of the earliest documents to contain Yeoman as a chivalric rank is the Chronicon Vilodunense (Life of Saint Edith). Originally written in Latin by Goscelin in the 11th century, it was later translated into the Wiltshire dialect of Middle English around 1420.
Part of the manuscript tells the story of the Archbishop of York, who was caught in a storm at sea during a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. He prayed to St. Edith for the storm to subside, and suddenly he saw St. Edith standing beside him. The Blessed Virgin had sent her, she said, to assure the archbishop that he would return safely. Miraculously, the storm stopped. The Archbishop kept his vows and visited the tomb of Saint Edith at Wilton Abbey. There he preached a sermon on the miracle to all the men there: knight, squire, Yeoman and page. [22]: lines 4531-58 In the stratified world of medieval England, the Yeoman were trapped in a rift between the nobility and the peasants. Then history came along and blurred the categories and left the confusion. The Yeomen class differed from the landed nobility and the burghers. Yeoman could own up to 100 hectares of land and often more in the late Middle Ages.
Because of their relative wealth, the Yeomen often came partly with the landed nobility in terms of wealth. The most famous ballads concerned the outlaw Yeoman Robyn Hode (Robin Hood, in modern spelling). A J Pollard, in his book Imagining Robin Hood: The Late Medieval Stories in Historical Context,[59]:x, suggested that the first Robin Hood was literary fiction of the 15th and early 16th centuries. This does not mean that Pollard claims that Robin Hood was not historical. He believes that what modern popular culture thinks it knows about Robin is actually based on how previous generations have seen him over the past 500 years. The historical Robyn Hode was (or perhaps was several men whose exploits were merged into a single individual ballads) is of secondary importance to subsequent generations for its cultural symbolism. In his review of Pollard`s book,[60] Thomas Ohlgren,[61] one of the editors of the Robin Hood Project at the University of Rochester,[62] agreed with this assessment. Since A Gest of Robyn Hode is a collective reminder of a fictional past of the 16th century, it can also be seen as a reflection of the century in which it was written.