1461=.

LEADING DATES

Reign of Henry VI., 1422--1461

Murder of the Duke of Suffolk and Jack Cade's rebellion 1450
First Protectorate of the Duke of York 1453
First Battle of St. Albans and second Protectorate of the
Duke of York 1455
Battle of Blore Heath and the discomfiture of the Yorkists 1459
After a Yorkist victory at Northampton the Duke of York
is declared heir to the crown, but is defeated and slain
at Wakefield 1460
Battles of Mortimer's Cross, St. Albans, and Towton 1461
Coronation of Edward IV. 1461

1. =The Growth of Inclosures.=--Since the insurrection of the peasants
in =1381= (see p. 268) villeinage had to a great extent been dying
out, in consequence of the difficulty felt by the lords in enforcing
their claims. Yet the condition of the classes connected with the land
was by no means prosperous. The lords of manors indeed abandoned the
old system of cultivating their own lands by the labour of villeins,
or by labourers hired with money paid by villeins in commutation for
bodily service. They began to let out their land to tenants who paid
rent for it; but even the new system did not bring in anything like
the old profit. The soil had been exhausted for want of a proper
system of manuring, and arable land scarcely repaid the expenses of
its cultivation. For this evil a remedy was found in the inclosure of
lands for pasturage. This change, which in itself was beneficial by
increasing the productiveness of the country, and by giving rest to
the exhausted soil, became oppressive because all the benefit went to
the lords of the manors, whilst the tenants of the manors were left to
struggle on as best they might. Not only had they no share in the
increase of wealth which was brought about by the inclosure of what
had formerly been the common land of the manors, but the poorer
amongst them had less employment than before, as it required fewer men
to look after sheep than to grow corn.

2. =Increasing Power of the Nobility.=--The disproportionate increase
of the wealth of the landowners threw into their hands a
disproportionate amount of power. The great landowner especially was
able to gather bands of retainers and to spread terror around him. The
evil of liveries and maintenance, which had