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GCSE History · key term
The small, powerful group at the top of society, distinguished by wealth, authority and high status.
Used by OCR
Paper 2
The wealthy or powerful members of a society, such as landowners and former tribal ruling families.
Revise: Romanisation and the Economic Impact of RomeFormer tribal rulers and their descendants formed an important part of the new urban governing class. This connected Roman authority with existing local elites rather than removing every earlier power structure.
Paper 2
A small group holding a disproportionate share of a society’s power, wealth or leading positions.
Revise: Migration Before 1066 and the Norman ConquestThe first arrivals were chiefly a military elite, not a mass movement of poor people seeking employment. Married soldiers could bring wives and children from France. Over approximately the next century, further settlers of different social ranks arrived from western France.
Paper 1
Revise: Social structureThegns were landholding members of the Anglo-Saxon elite. William did not create inequality, but his conquest transformed who occupied the most powerful positions and strengthened the dependence of landholders on the king.
Evaluate the extent of change: distinguish towns from the countryside, the South and East from military areas, and wealthy elites from poorer farmers.
Use dates to show that replacement of the English elite was a process after 1066, accelerated by rebellion, rather than a single immediate change.
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