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A yeoman (from Old English iunge man or geongra manna, "young man", or possibly geaman, "villager") was a late medieval British farmer of middling social status who owned his own land and often farmed it himself. Earlier identified as a rank and position in the noble or Royal Household, such as Yeoman of the Chamber, Yeoman of the Crown, Yeoman Usher, King's Yeoman, and various others.
Some yeomen farmers had servants or laborers with whom they would work if they had the means to afford such services. The term Yeoman Farmer was later used to distinguish them from Gentleman Farmers, who did not labor with their hands. Some Yeomen had more wealth than the minor gentry, but remained classed as yeomen by choice rather than by limits. Often it was hard to distinguish minor gentry from the wealthier yeomen farmers, and wealthier husbandmen from the poorer yeoman farmers.
Yeomen were identified in the Middle Ages as persons owning land worth approximately 40s to 80s annually, roughly between 1/4 Hide and 1 Hide (about 30 to 120 acres, or 12 to 50 hectares). In the early 12th Century 40 acres (16 hectares) of land was worth about 40s to 50s. The Assize of Arms of 1252 gave instructions for the small landholder to be armed and trained with a bow and those of more wealth (wealthy yeomen) would be required to possess and be trained with sword, dagger and the longbow or war bow.
The Concise Oxford Dictionary, (edited by H.W. & F.G.Fowler, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1972 reprint, p.1516) states that a Yeoman is "a person qualified by possessing free land of 40/- annual * value, and who can serve on juries and vote for a Knight of the Shire. He is sometimes described as a small landowner, a farmer of the middle classes."
Anthony Richard Wagner, Richmond Herald, wrote that "a Yeoman would not normally have less than 100 acres" (40 hectares) and in social status is one step down from the Gentry, but above, say, a husbandman. (English Genealogy, Oxford, 1960, pps: 125-130).
Origin of the term
The word Yeoman is derived from Proto-Germanic Gauja or Gauia, meaning district or country, hence, countryman. Ge- is an ancient prefix indicating district in the language of Anglo-Saxons (e.g., Gewisse means district-west-saxons or west saxon district) and is cognate with the Old Germanic Gau-; see Gau (German). Other Old Germanic forms are Old Frisian Ga-, Old Middle German Go-, Gothic Gawi-, and Old Low German Gewi-. The rune "ng" which looks like <> may be the source of confusion with yeoman either meaning youngman or meaning district man, though it is highly probable the word means both.
Ancient spelling "ge-
The first functions of the yeoman
Anglo-Saxon term for Geongra Manna or Geongra Mannus was certainly derived from the district or shire country meaning young(er) district-man or district-young(er)-man. Geongra were attendants, retainers, disciples, or followers and companions of a chief dating probably as far back to the days of gaus and early Germanic republics before the rise of feudalism (with lords, dukes, and kings) in ancient Germania. In essence the gau chiefs existed before the king (Koeng or Cyning) existed, showing the antiquity of the gaumann certainly developed as the clans/sibbens settled before the age of kings.
In either post-Anglo-Danish or Anglo-Norman England the term later formed into the word Yongeman or Yongerman. It was known in the early Middle English period (noted in the text Psuedo Cnut De Foresta Constitutiones written in the late eleventh century.) The Yongermen chosen of liberi homini mediocre to range or underkeep the royal forests is the first indicator of yeomen being associated with the forests (both greenwood and royal or manorial hunting forests).
Association with the bow
The Assize of Arms of 1252 AD identify a class long identified with the Yeoman, being a 40-shilling freeholder, and indicates "Those with land worth annual 40s-100s will be armed/trained with bow and arrow, sword, buckler and dagger". The description of societal standing of landowning persons mentioned in the 1252 Assize of Arms of who is to own and train with certain weapons epitomizes the Knight's Yeoman such as the one in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (Yeoman's Portrait in the General Prologue).
Though historically tied with the yew war bow, the word yeo itself is probably not derived from the word yew, but from 'Eau' meaning water, stream or river. The glyph "yogh" is identified with yew tree. The Irish medieval scribes created the glyph "yogh", from which the letter 'Y' descened and on the continent of Europe the letter 'G' would form the basis of the glyph yogh. The letter "Y" in due time had originated from the letter "G".
Yogh is also perhaps identified with yew as well in the Irish Ogham; a common material used for war bows and spears, obviously having a long association with yeoman archers. The English war bow, known as the longbow (the main weapon of a yeoman archer) was typically but not always made of yew wood, often times Wych Elm and other woods were used for making bow staves. Though yeomen archers are intricably tied to the English War Yew Bow, it was the Spanish, German, and Italian yew that were highly sought after because of its superior qualities and availability over English Yew in the late Middle Ages.
Position in society
The Yeoman represented a status between the aristocratic knights and the lower-class foot soldiers and household servants (pages). The yeoman archer was typically mounted and fought either on foot or on horseback, in contrast with infantry archers, and came to be applied to societal standing as a farmer in particular during the 14th to 18th Centuries. A Yeoman during the 12th and 13th Centuries was primarily a household and military (semi-feudal and feudal) term later associated with the days of private warfare.
Yeomen are also noted as providing guard escorts to deliveries of victuals and supplies (not only fighting as an elite archer but also as a guard to the baggage train as well a protector of the nobility and royalty) to the expeditions of the Hundred Years' War. They also provided escorts for the sovereign and great nobles on their journeys and their pilgrimages across the realm and overseas. Yeomen of the Crown were essentially agents of the king who were allowed to sit and dine with knights and squires of any lord's house or estate. At retirement they were offered a tenure of stewardship of royal forests.
The contracted form of Yongeman or Yongerman is most likely of Danish or Northern Germanic origin which eventually became Yeman or Yoman in the Middle Ages and adaptations of Yoeman were noticed. In the early 1300s AD, the word becomes more recognizable with a modern spelling of Yeoman emerged. Certainly by 1363 AD the term was well known as the vernacular became the official language of court. (Yeoman replaced the French term Valet after many years when French and Latin were the formal choices.)
Medieval and Renaissance yeomanry
Later in Medieval history through the Renaissance yeomanry shared attributes with both the upper and working classes, though they had little in common with today's urban middle class. The yeomanry was the first class of the commoners (peasants), in ancient Saxon days would be the equivalent to geneatas or villager. The Yeoman was more military and bound to the manor or estate, comparable to the radman or radcniht (radknight) who would provide escorts, deliver messages, erect fences for the hunt, and repair bridges. He would be given land (copyhold) by his lord for services well rendered. Many similarities exists between radmen/radknights and yeomen of the crown, as yeomen did the same exact tasks but at a higher level for the king or queen's household.
Many duties throughout the centuries
Duties of 'yeomen' were manifold from the Middle Ages through to the 19th Century. They were usually constables of their parish, and sometimes chief constables of the district, shire or hundred. Many 'yeomen' would hold status as bailiffs for the high sheriff, or for the shire, or hundred (division). Other civic duties would include churchwarden, bridgewarden, and other warden duties. It was also common for a 'yeoman' to be an overseer for their parishes. Yeomen, whether working for a lord, king, shire, knight, district or parish are noted for their civic duties as localized or municipal police forces raised by or led by the gentry. Some of these duties, and mostly that of constable and bailiff would be carried down through family traditions. Yeomen are seemingly in a role of ranging, roaming, surveying, and policing throughout their social history. In Chaucer's Canterbury Friar's Tale we notice a yeoman who is a bailiff of the forest.
The earlier word Franklin was the Yeoman's equivalent (a wealthy peasant landowner or freeholder or village official). Franklins in their days would typically be village leaders (aldermen), constables or mayors. Yeomen would find that status in the 14th Century as many of them became leaders, constables, sheriffs, justices of the peace, mayors and significant leaders of their country districts. It was too much for even valets known as Yeoman archers were forbidden to be returned to parliament, indicating they even held power at a level never before held by the upper class of commoners. The further away the district from gentry or burgesses, the more power a 'Yeoman' held in office, as well attested in statutes during the reign of Henry VIII.
A yeoman could be equally comfortable working on his farm, educating himself from books, or enjoying country sports such as shooting and hunting. By contrast members of the landed gentry and the aristocracy did not farm their land themselves, but let it to tenant farmers. Yeomen in the Tudor and Stuart period could also be found leasing or renting lands to the minor gentry. However, yeomen and tenant farmers were the two main divisions of the rural middle class in traditional British society, and the yeoman was a respectable and honorable class.
Isaac Newton, as well many other famous people such as Thomas Jefferson, hailed from the yeoman class. Isaac Newton inherited a small farm which paid the bills for his academic work. Many Yeoman fathers would have the means to send their sons to school to qualify to join the professions, and become classed as gentlemen. Many families of Yeomen status and established good standing would also have sons who would serve in the royal or great noble households providing not menial, but honorable service.
The term suggests someone upright, sturdy, honest and trustworthy, qualities attributed to the Yeomen of the Crown; and in the 13th Century the Yeomen of the Chamber were described as virtuous, cunning, skillful, courteous, and experts in archery chosen out of every great noble's house in England. The King's Yeoman or King's Valectus (Valetti) is the earliest usage in a recognizable form such as King's Yeman or King's Yoman. Possibly the concept is derived from King's Geneatas, meaning either companion or a follower of a king. In more ancient times, a follower of a district (gau) chief.
Comparable classes of people
The term is sometimes applied to people of similar status in other traditional societies. The Franklin is the closest example meaning a freeman and sometimes meaning a French or Norman freeholder. Franklin milites would basically be the equivalent of a Yeoman in the Middle Ages and the Yeoman the equivalent of a Franklin in the later Middle Ages.
The Yeoman belonged to a class or status of fighter (usually known as in the third order of the fighting class between that of a squire and a page). This status was very different from what was occurring on the continent in the days of feudalism where the gap between commoners and gentry was far wider causing much derision between the two. This wide gulf would possibly explain why outlawry was more common in the regions of France than in England.
The 'Yeoman' was unique to England and Wales (in particular, South East Wales with the famed archers of Gwent, Glamorgan, Crickhowell, and Abergavenny regions, and South West England with the Royal Forest of Dean, Kingswood Royal Forest near Bristol, and the New Forest). Though the Kentish Weald archers are noted for their skills, as well the Ettrick Archers of Scotland, it appears the bulk of the 'yeomanry' was from the western and northern regions of England and Southern and Eastern Wales (English and Welsh Marches).
The Welsh have the honors of being the first to be attested to using the 'longbow' (circa 650 AD) either against the Mercians, or as allies of the Mercians against Northumbria. The incident of Abergavenny was certainly not unknown to King Henry II, and the later King Henry III who created the Assize of Arms 1252 identifying the 'war bow' as a national weapon for classes of men who held land under 80s or 100s annually. Certainly the 'Yongermen' fell under this classification. By King Edward I's rule the bulk of the archers were Welsh, who defeated the Scots and eventually would be used with great success by King Edward III in the Hundred Years' War.
There continue to be heated discussions as to whether the longbow was an English longbow or Welsh longbow, and even claims that the Vikings or Danes brought the longbow to England. It is noticeable the yew longbow seems to be a common weapon within the Bell Beaker culture, which is most likely ancestral to the Celtic people. Yew trees have always been more abundant in southwestern Europe than in northern Europe. The original Yeomen of the Guard chartered in 1485 AD were most likely originally Welsh, Breton, or Celtic descent.
Archery seems to have been common from Denmark all the way to Spain long before the existence of metal swords and daggers. However, it has been speculated that the Danish longbows such as in Nydham are a weapons hoard, and were imported rather than manufactured locally. Interestingly the word or term 'geongramanna' which most likely evolved into 'yeoman' in the Middle ages has an element of the Danish language (ng). It is possible that the Teutones and from Germania and the Cimbri from the Jutland peninsula (Denmark) may have used archers (possibly the Cimbri who may have been Celtic) during Germania's initial conflict with the Roman Empire.
Yeoman farmers
Yeoman farmers were originally a class of British or English landholding (freehold and copyhold) farmers in the late 14th to the 18th century. The amount of land owned and the wealth of the English yeoman farmer varied from place to place. Many yeoman farmers were prosperous, mixed with the minor gentry and some even rented land to gentleman landowners. Some were entitled to be classed as gentlemen but did not pursue it, as it was cheaper to remain a yeoman. Some yeomen farmers of the later Tudor and Stuart period shared the heritage and ancestry of the occupational medieval yeoman, as attested mainly by weapons found above the fireplace mantles (especially in the border shires) of the West Midlands England. Yeoman farmers were called upon to serve their sovereign and their country well after the middle ages, for example in the Yeomanry Cavalry of the late 1700s and later Imperial Yeomanry of the late 1890s.
In the United States yeomen were identified in the 18th and 19th Centuries as non-slaveholding small landowning family farmers. They were mostly southern caucasians. Yeoman farmers, because they owned no slaves of their own, frequently hired slaves at harvest time to help in the fields. In an area where land was poor, like eastern Tennessee, the landowning yeomen were typically subsistence farmers, but grew some crops for the market. Whether they engaged in subsistence or commercial agriculture, they controlled far more modest landholdings than those of the planters, more likely in the range of over fifty to two hundred acres, rather than five hundred or more acres.
Other references to Yeoman
- Yeomanry Cavalry refers to the extra-judicial military force organized by the property-owning class to defend against French invasion in 18th-century England as well as to protect British occupation in 18th-century Ireland. Yeomanry Cavalry was officially formed in 1794 (formed unofficially circa. 1760s) and eventually became the Imperial Yeomanry in 1899 and then Territorial Army in 1907. Many units retain their 'Yeomanry' designation today and have seen service in both World Wars and today's so-called "war on terrorism". This contrasts with the title of Gentlemen Cavaliers of the Household Cavalry regiments.
- Yeoman Riders of the Coursers Stables, Yeoman Riders of the Hunting Stables, Yeoman Riders of the Race and Running Horses, First Yeoman Rider, Second Yeoman Rider. See British History Online.
- Yeomen of the Guard were established in 1485 AD after the Battle of Bosworth Field and were officially chartered by King Henry VII for their loyal service during the war. Later, King Henry VIII established the Yeomen Warders of the Tower of London, which is the oldest of the Royal Bodyguards in England, and one of the oldest Royal Bodyguards and military organizations in the world. In essence Yeomen of the Guard and Yeomen Warders are direct modern day links to the days of warfare in the Middle Ages.
- Yeoman Usher of the Black Rod is a deputy position to the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod and is the deputy sergeant-at-arms in the House of Lords. The position is an official figure in the parliaments of many Commonwealth countries.
- There are several Yeoman positions in the staff of the Royal Household, under the Master of the Household.
- According to Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe, Robin Hood's band of Merry Men is largely comprised of Yeomen.
- In William Caxton's print of the Canterbury Tales there is a woodcut engraving of the knight's yeoman.
- Sir Gawain states that he was made a yeoman at Yule in Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory
- In the tabletop game of Warhammer, a yeoman is a leader of a footsoldier unit, and held positions in towns like the head gaoler or warden.
Further reading
- Mildred Campbell - ''The English Yeoman"
External links
- * Yeomen of the Guard
- * Caxton's Print of Canterbury Tales
- * Longbow-Archers
- * Tower of London
- * Official Yeomen of the Guard
- * Robin Hood Society
- * Yeoman Board Game
- * Amesbury Archer Longbow
- * Knight's Yeoman
- * Physics of the Longbow
- * Society of Archers Antiquaries
- * The Medieval Longbow
- * The Yeoman Warders
"Yeoman"