Why Form 5495 Priorities 2017-2024

Right, well last time, I was looking at the vital social distinctions that were recognized in the sixteenth century. Also, how people conceived of society as a whole. So, today, I want to come down to the other end of the scale and look at the most fundamental unit of society: the household. - The household can be defined, in the first instance, as being a unit of residence, of course, but also as a unit of authority. It's a group of people, some related, some unrelated, living under the same roof, under the authority of a household head, usually a man, sometimes a widowed woman. - In addition, the household has been described as a unit that was geared for work. The work which was necessary to satisfy its needs as a unit of production, consumption, and reproduction. So, all households had that much in common, but they varied greatly in their size, their composition, and the complexity of the relationships contained within them. - If we go to the top of the social scale, the households of the nobility and the gentry could be very large institutions indeed, sometimes vast institutions. They were organized to maintain not only a noble family at an expected level of magnificence, but also they were the centers for administering landed estates, conducting local government, and often the exercise of political power. - To give just one example, at Pontefract castle in the center of the country in South Yorkshire, Lord Darcy's household in 1521 consisted of 80 people, including his family members, extended family, household and estate officers, and menial servants. When he was called by Henry VIII to go to war against the Scots in 1523, he took with him 23 young men from his household as his personal guard. - Such people as...