th it, so that England was more affected by Burgundy
than by any other part of Europe. The social character in England
and France, which, to some extent, had followed parallel lines since
the Norman conquest, now began to diverge widely. The breakdown of
feudalism in England, where it had never been so fully developed as
in France, was not contemporaneous with French conditions in this
respect. Consequently, in the latter country, the chasm between the
lower and the upper strata of society grew ever wider, the lower
classes becoming more and more miserable, and the upper more immoral.
In England, as we have seen, serfdom disappeared, or existed in name
only, and the relation between the country gentry and the peasants
became increasingly intimate and kindly. The growth of commerce had
spread wealth among the middle classes and had added much to their
social comfort. Although social manners were still very coarse, the
influence of religious reformers, such as the Lollards, was being felt
in an improvement in the moral tone of the middle and lower classes
of society. Moreover, the discussion of great social questions had
become general among the people. Even in the middle of the fourteenth
century, the celebrated poem of _Piers Plowman_ took up such
discussions, and one of the tenets of the Lollards was the natural
equality of man. In England, conditions were ripe for the advent of a
new era, and in the fulness of time there came forth the spirit of new
learning, of new industry, of exploration, of investigation, and of
religious freedom, to lead the English people into the inheritance for
which they had been prepared by those centuries over a part of which
hung such a pall as to secure for them the title of the Dark Ages.

CHAPTER X

THE WOMEN OF THE TUDOR PERIOD

As the year has its seasons, marked by alternations of active growth
and recuperation for new development, so likewise has history. If the
Middle Ages were a time of comparative dearth as viewed in the light
of the modern era, certainly there was ample vitality hidden in the
quiet forms and the mechanical fixity of the period. The season of
vernal glory for England, which opened with the reign of Henry VIII.
and found its climax in that of Elizabeth, was glorious because the
beauty and brilliancy which characterized it were due to the splendid
utilities which were passed on to it from the Middle Ages. Art,
literature, and the pleasant pastimes of lei