All-paternal line lived between Pamplona and a hamlet nearby; they were knight-captains of that hamlet and the surrounding area. They farmed; traded horses and the product of their farms and those of other people (on commision); acted as local judges and represented the people of the area when the king or queen called for parliament; led the local troops into battle when needed (not often); their house’s upper floor doubled as the granary for the area, and the house itself was a “strong house” (not a castle, but with walls that could withstand 19th-century artillery, as fireproof as possible and with its own well inside). They were considered “lower nobility”: later bans on the nobility going into trades or commerce didn’t affect either the knight-captains themselves or their untitled relatives, as they didn’t rank high enough (phew). That area didn’t have much in the way of sharecroppers or serfs, farms were usually owned by the farmer.
Everybody else on that side of the family was from an area within 200km of that village, and “200km” is actually on the large side. We know this thanks to the “blood-tests” people needed because of Felipe V: he wanted to change parts of our legal system that only Parliament could change and about shot out of his palace when told “anybody who wants” could attend the meetings; since this wasn’t actually in writing, he said he’d only accept people who could prove all four of their grandparents were descended from people who’d attended previous Parliaments. The list was still too large for his taste, so he upped the requirement to all eight great-grandparents, but this didn’t lower the numbers at all - that Parliament was never held. Independent farmers, tradesmen, traders, sailors… more of them working in the primary sector than would be normal today, but generally my foreparents were what one could call “middle class”.
Other sides of the family were not-rich but not-poor farmers in Asturias; poor farmers in Salamanca; no idea what in Naples; rich landowners in northern Italy; and no idea in Nancy (France).