How much land/wealth would a 'mid-range' noble in 16th century Western Europe own?

by Vyncis
mormengil

The 16th century is tricky, as far as determining how much land/wealth, a mid-range noble in England might have.

This is because the system of feudal land holdings was breaking down.

The statute Quia Emptores, in 1290 prohibited new feudal grants of land, and allowed the transfer (by sale or inheritance) of land without the permission of the feudal lord. The feudal possession of land was finally abolished by the Tenures Abolition Act of 1660.

The numbers of nobility fell to a low point in the 16th century. Queen Elizabeth was reluctant to create new nobles and managed to eliminate some of the existing ones. By the end of the 16th century there were only some 60 noble titles extant in England. (Whereas, through most of the Middle Ages there were around 200 noble titles in existence, and, after Elizabeth, the Stuart Monarchs created many new titles.)

These 60 nobles are cited in this source:

https://faculty.history.wisc.edu/sommerville/367/367-03.htm

as owning 15% of the land in England.

So, there were not very many nobles in England in the 16th century, but those that there were held quite a lot of land on average.