English freeholder in the 13th and 14th centuries. Franklins paid a rent for their land and did not owe military service to their lord. Their status was above that of the free peasant but below the gentry. After the Black Death (1349) the status of many franklins improved in the favourable economic climate. The newly rich and socially ambitious franklin was satirized by Chaucer in the Prologue to his Canterbury Tales.