In the "Court and Country" Opposition That Shaped Seventeenth-Century English

In the "court and country" opposition that shaped seventeenth-century English politics country refers to

A) the peasants.
B) a loose group of merchants and rising entrepreneurs with roots in the gentry.
C) the most powerful landed aristocrats and their allies among the small gentry.
D) the most vocal patriots.
E) the bishops of the Church of England.