After "Paladin of Souls" I'm re-reading "Penric's Demon"... which has me thinking about the American fantasy trope of idealised rustic minor nobility. ("We don't have much of a castle, really, and we all help out with the harvest".)

Obviously, it's attractive to a middle-class readership - nobles are romantic and they don't have to worry about status or job security, and if they're simple country folk then you also get to feel superior to them...