. Social England; a record of the progress of the people in religion, laws, learning, arts, industry, commerce, science, literature and manners, from the earliest times to the present day . d unlawful assembhes were suppressed. Henry YII.(ktinitely aimed at levelling class ])rivileges. Some of theold nobles held office under him, but thev were reduced tothe same level :is the rest of the new officials wjio aided theking to carry on the government. Tiie ]iowcr of the medi-eval nobility passtd awa\-, and gradually the old race ofnobles, with slight exceptions, disappeared. i)n\y a few liketin; l
. Social England; a record of the progress of the people in religion, laws, learning, arts, industry, commerce, science, literature and manners, from the earliest times to the present day . d unlawful assembhes were suppressed. Henry YII.(ktinitely aimed at levelling class ])rivileges. Some of theold nobles held office under him, but thev were reduced tothe same level :is the rest of the new officials wjio aided theking to carry on the government. Tiie ]iowcr of the medi-eval nobility passtd awa\-, and gradually the old race ofnobles, with slight exceptions, disappeared. i)n\y a few liketin; l)uke of Norfolk remained to cftnnect the era of thePlantagenets with that of the Tudors. The civil wars turnedu]i a new soil to the surface, .and the construction of a newnobility out of the ruins of the old was at least be<^-un bv 1509) Henry VIIElizabeth. At the end THE BALANCE OF Cl^ASSES. 623 and definitely continued by Henry ^1II. and then, of tlic fifteenth centurv. and at tli beginning of the sixteenth, tliis |ir<)(; of filling the ranksof the nobilitj- with new men was begun. The class whichcame forward to fill the gap caused by wars, confiscations The TOMB OF LOED , WESTMINSTER ABBEV. and attainders, was what might be termed the nii]>er ruralclass, a class which had been formed by the fusion of thekniyhts of the shire with the non-noble free landowner, whohad after Edward reign tended to separate from theclass of barons. This new class had in the fifteenth centurydevoted itself to agriculture and to the selling of wool andthe produce of its herds. It was mainly from this class thatHenry VUT. chose his new peers. The new peerage was thusdistinctly based u])on wealth, it was ignorant of the traditionsof the earlier nobility, it was at first absohitely dependent onthe monarch to whom it owed its position, and to whoin it 024 THE BEGIXXINGS OF MODEIIS EXGLAXD. [1485 li)i.)ked for future favours. Though the bai-onage of the latterMidd
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookidsocialenglan, bookyear1902
