"OF BLOOD AND BREEDING": A NOTE ON THE HISTORY OF THE CONCEPT "GENTLEMAN" IN 13-17 CENTURIES
The article traces the change of meaning within the concept of a gentleman at its early stage in English culture. The primary sources used in the article include statutes, tracts, early modern fiction and dictionaries. The first part of the paper presents a brief historio-graphical overview of the topic. It shows that until the 20th century and a little later in general works, highlighting English history, scholars tended to speak of a gentleman mostly as of a landlord, but as early as in the beginning of the 20th century profound lexicographical works began to appear. Historiographical analysis shows that the process of the shaping of English nobility in late Middle Ages and the emergence of the class of gentlemen in its structure are examined in detail. Nevertheless, it is important to determine the time when birth as a key feature of nobility stopped playing a defining role in the concept of a gentleman. The second part of the paper covers the origins of the concept of a gentleman. It shows that there is not a single point of view of the scholars towards the question of the time of emergence of the concept. Taking into account the earliest known text it may be assumed that the concept appeared in English culture before the 13th century. The status of a gentleman became officially recognised approximately since the Statute of Additions of 1413. Different groups of sources show that until the 17th century a gentleman in a general sense was perceived as a representative of nobility on the whole when compared with commonalty, and as the lowest group of nobility in a restricted sense. It shows in the inal part of the paper that by the middle of the 17th century the concept of a gentleman began to cover not only birth, but personal qualities as well. The enhancing of the role of personal merits coincided with the involvement of gentlemen in commercial activities in the 16th - first half of the 17th century, which required the manifestation of a complex of qualities necessary for the successful conduct of business.