Lawrence Stone

An open elite? : England, 1540-1880

An Open Elite? sets out to test the traditional view that for centuries English landed society has been open to new families made rich by business or public office. From a detailed examination of the landed elites of three counties between 1540 and 1880, the authors come to radical new conclusions about the landed classes. They describe the strategies of marriage and inheritance evolved by older families to preserve their position, and establish that the number of newcomers was always relatively small. The resulting work is a major reassessment of the social, economic, and political history of England since the Reformation. This abridged edition of what was immediately recognized as a major work of historical scholarship was first published in 1986 and is now available in Clarendon Paperback with a new foreword by Lawrence Stone.

Theories of Revolution

In attacking the problem of revolution, as most others of major significance in history, we historians should think twice before we spurn the help offered by our colleagues in the social sciences, who have, as it happens, been particularly active in the last few years in theorizing about the typology, causes, and evolutionary patterns of this particular phenomenon. The purpose of this article is not to advance any new hypothesis, but to provide a summary view and critical examination of the work that has been going on.

Marriage among the English Nobility in the 16th and 17th Centuries

In this paper an attempt is made to study the marriage customs and family relationships of the titular peerage and the 500 or so leading county families who together formed the dominant political and social grouping of Tudor and Stuart England. Generalisations here made apply only to this restricted class and not necessarily to those below it. When it comes to be investigated, the behaviour of the lesser gentry, the yeomanry, the peasantry and the merchants may well show significant differences from the model set by their betters.

Uncertain Unions: Marriage in England 1660-1753.

Part 1 Introduction: case studies legal records courtship the making of marriage marriage, property and the Common Law customary unions and concubinage contract marriage - the first suppression 1540-1642, the revival 1642-1660, the second suppression 1660-1753 clandestine marriage - definition and development, demand from the laity, supply by the clergy, repressive legislation and actual growth 1666-1730, reform and abolition 1730-1753. Part 2 Case studies: courtship and contract forced marriage by the parish forced marriage by the seducer or suitor clandestine marriage - a fleet person, a valid clandestine marriage, a forged clandestine marriage, a bigamous marriage.

The Family, Sex and Marriage in England 1500-1800.

This book studies the evolution of the family from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century and how the process radically influenced child-rearing, education, contraception, sexual behaviour and marriage.

The Crisis of the Aristocracy: 1558-1641.

Based on private papers of aristocratic families, this book presents a new interpretation of the long-term social changes leading up to the English Revolution.