Super Glossary

Franklin

Entertainment / Literature / Franklin: A medieval profession akin to a cross between a landlord and a real estate agent. In the early medieval political system of feudalism, society was divided theoretically into three estates: (1) knights and the nobility, (2) the clergy, and (3) agricultural laborers known as serfs. This unrealistically simple tripartite division gave way to increasing complexity in later centuries. The growth of craftsmen guilds, the increasing number of yeoman, the development of town charters and metropolitan life, and labor shortages caused by the Black Death--these all contributed to the demise of the pure feudal system. Scarcity of labor forced noblemen to pay their laborers, and the aristocrats became increasingly strapped for cash to support their lavish lifestyles. The only wealth they possessed was land, so an increasing number of them began selling land for cash. The nouveau riche members of the bourgeoisie, rich merchants in silk, wool, wine and other goods, seized upon this opportunity to buy large swathes of land from ever more impoverished nobility, which they in turn rented out to other freemen. The new landowner, the franklin, was usually snubbed as parvenu by the typical aristocrat, especially since the franklins were famous for dressing up like noblemen and putting on aristocratic airs in spite of the sumptuary laws against such dress. The reputation for being social climbers was perhaps well deserved, given that many of these new landowners attempted to 'buy' their way into aristocratic ranks by marrying their sons and daughters into the ranks of nobility in return for cash payments. Probably the most famous franklin in literary history is Chaucer's Franklin, whose lavish displays of generosity in the General Prologue are only matched by his blatant attempts to flatter the Knight (through complimenting the Knight's son, the Squire) and his attempt to redefine the qualities of nobility later in the Canterbury Tales.
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