By the Early Seventeenth Century, the English Great Lords

By the early seventeenth century, the English great lords

A) had largely lost their military ethos but increased their influence in the government due to their commercial enterprises.
B) had become a new composite class of great landowners and prosperous merchants.
C) had largely abandoned their military function and were losing influence to the gentry.
D) allied themselves with the townspeople against an upwardly mobile gentry.
E) continued to dominate English politics.