ENGLISH-SPEAKING HISTORIANS ABOUT LATE MEDIEVAL ENGLANDS' FARMERS                             (XVI – MIDDLE XVII CENTURY) 

Mitrophanov Vladimir Petrovich, Doctor of historical sciences, professor, sub-department of general history, historiography and archaeology, Penza State University (40 Krasnaya street, Penza, Russia), vm@em-england.ru 

930.1(09)(410) 

Background. In the English-language historiography of the agrarian history of England during the late Middle Ages there is a number of significant researches. These include monographs and articles by R. Protero, R. Tawny, G. Fussel, J. Thirsk, E. Kerridge, etc. The interest in the issue of farming especially clearly manifested itself in the end of the 19-th century. However, the published sources about the farms of the 16th and 17th centuries are not adequately reflected on the pages of scientific works. The aim of this paper is to examine the works by English-speaking authors on the agrarian history of England and the determination of the de-gree of development in the history of the farming period of XVI – the first half of XVII centuries, as well as to identify the existing points of view and approaches.
Materials and methods. The research goals were achieved through the use of the dialectical method of cognition of historical processes, which incorporates the principles of Historicism, objectivity and consistency that allowed to identify the substantive side of the question, the point of view and scientific approaches of English-speaking historians in the study of the history of English farming of XVI – the first half of XVII centuries.
Results. The study of works on the agrarian history of England of the XVI–XVIII centuries‟ researchers from Great Britain, the USA, New Zealand showed that they achieved considerable progress in research of many questions of the agrarian history of England of this period, but the history of early farming is still insufficient-ly studied as in the local material (diaries, expenses books of certain farmers, etc. sources), and as a whole for the English kingdom.
Conclusions. In the English-language historiography of the history of English farming of the 16-th – mid-17th century the question of its participation in the process of enclousure is partly researched, and the problems of farmers‟ economic activity is researched in the local materials to a lesser extent. The dynamics of dis-tribution of farms across the country in the period of XVI – the first half of the XVII century, transformation of feudal lines, their participation as producers of agri-cultural products in the food market and some other issues of their business activi-ties and daily life are poorly researched. 

historians, farmers, agrarian history, R. Tawney, R. Prothero, G. Fussel, J. Thirsk, E. Kerridge, W. Hoskins. 

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