Yeoman

Yeoman is a noun originally referring either to one who owns and cultivates land or to the middle ranks of servants in an English royal or noble household. The term was first documented in mid-14th-century England. The 14th century also witnessed the rise of the yeoman longbow archers during the Hundred Years' War, and the yeoman outlaws celebrated in the Robin Hood ballads. Yeomen also joined the English Navy during the Hundred Years' War as seamen and archers. In the early 15th century, yeoman was the rank of chivalry between page and squire. By the late 17th century, yeoman became a rank in the Royal Navy for the common seamen who were in charge of ship's stores, such as foodstuffs, gunpowder, and sails.

Wel coude he dresse his takel yemanly
    —Chaucer

Quotes

• Herkens, god yemen,
    Comley, corteys, and god,
  On of the best that yever bare bowe,
    Hes name was Roben Hode.
  Roben Hood was the yemans name,
    That was boyt corteys and fre;
  For the loffe of owre ladey,
    All wemen werschepyd he.
  • Anonymous, "Robin Hood and the Potter", ll. 5–12

• Lythe and listin, gentilmen,
    That be of frebore blode;
  I shall you tel of a gode yeman,
    His name was Robyn Hode.
  • Anonymous, "A Gest of Robyn Hode", ll. 1–4
  • Stephen Knight; Thomas H. Ohlgren, eds., Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales (TEAMS, 1997), Online

• A Yeman hadde he, and servaunts namo
  At that tyme, for him liste ryde so;
  And he was clad in cote and hood of grene;
  A sheef of pecok-arwes brighte and kene
  Under his belt he bar ful thriftily;
  (Wel coude he dresse his takel yemanly:
  His arwes drouped noght with fetheres lowe),
  And in his hand he bar a mighty bowe.
  A not-heed hadde he, with a broun visage.
  Of wode-craft wel coude he al the usage.
  Upon his arm he bar a gay bracer,
  And by his syde a swerd and a bokeler,
  And on that other syde a gay daggere,
  Harneised wel, and sharp as point of spere;
  A Cristofre on his brest of silver shene.
  An horn he bar, the bawdrik was of grene;
  A forster was he, soothly, as I gesse.
  • Geoffrey Chaucer, "General Prologue", Canterbury Tales
  • W. W. Skeat, ed., The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, IV (Oxford, 1900)

• My father was a Yoman, and had no landes of hys own, only he had a farme of iii. or iiii. pound by yere at the uttermooste, and here upon he tilled so much as kept halfe a dosen men. He had walke for a hundred shepe, and my mother milked xxx. kyne. He was able and did finde the kyng a harnesse, with himselfe, and his horse, whyle he came to the place that he shoulde receive the kynges wages. I can remembre, that I buckled hys harnesse, when he wente unto Blacke heathe felde. He kept me to schole, or els I hadde not bene able to have preached before the kinges majesty now. He maryed my systers wyth v. pounde, or xx. nobles a piece, so that he brought them up in godlinesse, and fear of God. He kepte hospitality for his pore neighboures. And some almesse he gave to the pore, and al thys dyd he of the said farm. Where he that now hath it, payeth xvi. pound by yere or more, and is not able to do any thing for his prince, for him selfe, nor for his children, or geve a cup of drink to the pore. Thus al the enhansyng and rearing goth to your private commodity and welth. So that where ye had a single to much, you have that : and sins the same, ye have enhansed the rent, and so have encresed another to muche. So nowe ye have double to muche, which is to to muche. But let the precher preach til his tong be worn to the stomps, nothing is amended. We have good statutes made for the common wealth as touching commeners, enclosers, many metings and sessions, but in the end of the matter, there commeth nothing forthe. Well, well, thys is one thing I wil say unto you, from whence it commeth I know, even from the devd. I know his intent in it. For if ye bring it to passe, that the yomanry be not able to put their sonnes to schole (as in dede universities do wondrously decay al redy) and that they be not able to marrye theyr daughters to the avoidynge of whoredome I say ye plucke salvation from the people, and utterly destroye the realme. For by yomans sonnes, the faith of Christe is, and hath bene maintayned chieflye. Is this realme taughte by rich mens sonnes? No, no, read the chronicles, ye shall finde somtime noble mennes sonnes, whych have bene unpreaching bishops and prelates, but ye shal fynde none of them learned men. But verily, they that shoulde looke to the redresse of these thinges, be the greatest againste them. In thys realme are a great many of folkes, and amongest many, I knowe but one of tender zeale, at the mocyon of his pore tenauntes, hath let down his landes to the old rentes for their relief. For Gods love, let not him be a Phenix, let him not be alone, let him not be an Hermite closed in a wal, some good man folow him, and do as he geveth example.
  • Hugh Latimer, "First Sermon preached before King Edward VI"
  • "Decay of the Yeomanry", in The Oxford Book of English Prose (1925), no. 37
  • Gloss: walke) pasture

• ... And you, good yeomen,
  Whose limbs were made in England, show us here
  The mettle of your pasture. Let us swear
  That you are worth your breeding, which I doubt not,
  For there is none of you so mean and base
  That hath not noble luster in your eyes.
  • William Shakespeare, Henry V, act 3, sc. 1

• What of the men?
    The men were bred in England:
  The bowmen—the yeomen,
    The lads of dale and fell.
        Here’s to you—and to you!
        To the hearts that are true
  And the land where the true hearts dwell.
  • Arthur Conan Doyle, "The Song of the Bow"
  • The White Company (1891); Songs of Action (1898)