Political Instability of 15th century England
The Black Death's Involvement in the Peasants' Revolt of 1381During a time of crisis, people who do not ordinarily get along seem to suddenly share common ground. At the time of the Black Death when the bubonic plague struck women, men, lords and peasants alike, those who had always felt to be at the bottom of the social chain suddenly felt as if something had equalized them with everyone who had always been at the top. The peasants who survived the plague believed themselves to be blessed and were positive that it was a sign from God to improve their lives. Unfortunately for them, this feeling was soon to be taken away and they were not going to let it go without a fight and thus began the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. After the Black Death, lords and manors were in desperate need of workers. The plague had caused a labor shortage and this allowed peasants to demand higher wages. For the first time the ball was in the court of the common man and they were threatening to leave their villages, upsetting the Feudal System to find other lords who offered better wages. As a result, more freedom and more money was given to these peasants by the manors. In 135
The Lancastrians had to shift the power to Henry Tudor who later became King Henry VII. The Wars of the Roses were a series of civil wars fought in medieval England from 1455 to 1487 between the House of Lancaster and the House of York. " A "class war" could be defined as a time when ordinary people have had enough of being pushed around and decide to fight back. A collapse known as bastard feudalism which has been referred to as a "cancerous affliction of the body politic, which produced weak government, endemic violence, judicial corruption and eventually war" ( Smith 38) was also undermining the political system. It was a time of total chaos and historians even believe it is when Britain's fall began. To deal with this, Henry strengthened the government and his own power, at the expense of the nobles. After his forces defeated Richard Duke of York in 1485, Henry VII united the two houses by marrying Elizabeth of York and merging the two symbols, red and white roses, into one. Through his monetary stratagem, Henry was able to steadily build up wealth during his reign, so that by the time he died, he left a sizeable fortune to his son, Henry VIII. 1, the lords had had enough and introduced the Statue of Laborers. The royal government had grown so weak that a breakdown of law and order was taking place. In a short time they had been given a little bit of freedom and then lost it all over again. There were fourteen battles that took place between the two governing bodies that killed major landowners, ruined land and caused families to die out. The statue included that peasants could not be paid more than they had been paid in 1346, that no master should offer any more money than they had before and that peasants could not leaves the villages to which they belonged. Once again, the common man was at the bottom of the chain.
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