ABSTRACT

When one compares England immediately before the Reformation crisis and in Edward III's later years, the most striking difference which one sees is that it was no longer a Continental power. Not only had England's position in Europe changed, but the political geography of the Continent also showed drastic alterations from that of the fourteenth century. In the fifteenth century Welsh families such as the Tudors and the Herberts had entered the English aristocracy, the former even securing the throne following a lucky marriage and the elimination in war of rival claimants. The final abolition of Welsh law and the establishment of counties in the Principality on the English pattern in the 1530s was the logical outcome of earlier developments. The late Middle Ages had seen important changes in the English economy, more particularly in agricultural society where serfdom had virtually disappeared in the years of labour shortage and declining population, leaving the rural worker free in law.