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by C. E. Moreton (Author)
This is the first scholarly history of the rise of the Townshends, who were to become the most famous landowning family in Norfolk. Moreton exploits to the full the rich family archives in order to tell the story of individuals such as Roger Townshend I, a prominent lawyer of the late fifteenth century, and his son, also Roger, a leading country gentlemen. Moreton traces the growth in the Townshends' wealth and power in the late middle ages, and sets them in their context as a major gentry family. Their lawsuits, their estates policy, and their sheep-farming activities reveal much about the nature of the gentry's relationship to land and its role in local society in late medieval and early Tudor England.
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This is the first scholarly history of the rise of the Townshends, one of Norfolk's most famous families. C. E. Moreton exploits to the full the family papers in order to tell the story of individuals like Roger Townshend I, a prominent late medieval lawyer, and his son, also Roger, a leading gentleman of the county. Dr. Moreton traces the growing wealth and power of the Townshends, and sets them in the context of the gentry elite they had joined. Their participation in county government, as well as their lawsuits, estates policy, and sheepfarming reveal much about the gentry and local society in late medieval and early Tudor England.
