The Distribution Of Aristocratic Family Property In Early Modern England

In England, the period between the end of the Wars of Roses and The Industrial Revolution, which was about three hundred years from the Tudors, to the Stuarts and the House of Hanover before the 1760s, was a special historical period. Feudal aristocracies suffered heavy casualties in thirty years of the Wars of Roses, which caused hereditary nobility immediately to decline. As a whole, however, landed families reached so high a point in second half of the 17th century that the following period has been knowing as'aristocratic century'.This paper highlights the discussions of the relations of aristocratic family property in early modern England. As a certain historical group, aristocracy had very high social status, relatively closed social circles and different ways of life,so that they produced an effect on social attitudes, for which the main force providing support was their great estates.Within the families, however, the important problem that fathers had to confronted with was the distribution of property, among which there remained contradictions between inheritance and plenty of children, and social customs. For the sake of plain, we divide the question into two aspects to discuss. In the first part, we expound on the transference of property from one aristocratic family to another through marriages. In such circumstances, marriage became a way of accomplishing a mission, rather than a fruit of loving. It constructed the family structure which the laws and social customs at that time recognized. Meanwhile, there accompanied with transferring of the property and legal rights. Therefore, the main consideration in marriage was his or her family background and social status. Prenuptial agreement was the document by which the property relationship between husband and wife was decided. Women and their dowry lost independent legal identity, but was under the unilateral control of husband, through which landowners built a more solid system of ownership. Moreover, the system was further strengthened by inheritance.The following tow parts are to discuss the inheriting of aristocratic family property. As we know, the common law had ruled strict regulations over inheritance in England, but landowners constantly tried all kinds of new approach, in order to find out a balance point between inheritance and the disposal of their own. The entail, use and the strict settlement were all devices they created to meet their need. Of course, there existed other factors, such as the interpenetration between land market and movable property, and the different affection a father to children, which affected property inheritance to some extent.The ways of marriage and inheritance, through which landowners accumulated and transferred family estates from one generation to another, not only lead to different fate among different family members; but produced influence between each family, promoting their development or aggravating their decline. Consequently, the whole English society was influenced. In the early modern England, great estates were accumulated promptly, the result was the concentration of land in fewer hands, which paved the way for the coming'aristocratic century'. A number of new aristocracies unwilling to lag behind broke through old mode of production and invested in modern operation, which laid solid foundations for the Industrial Revolution.