In England, before the Black Death, there were about four or five millions of people. When it had passed away, there were about half this number, It produces and it was long before the number of inhab- great itants again rose as high as three million. England.

changes in

Free laborers, who were not villains, became scarce, and those who were left demanded increased wages. Many "villains" left the estates of their masters, and fled to the towns, or found places elsewhere where their lot was easier. Parliament passed laws to keep wages and prices at their old level, but these could not be enforced. The old system of labor and agriculture broke down, and a new one gradually took its place. Many landlords rented their lands to tenant farmers, and gave up trying to till them with the labor of villains and hired labor. In part the change was a benefit to the laborers, by enabling them in the end to better their condition. At all events it meant a great change for the country.

TOPICS FOR THOUGHT AND SEARCH

1. What was it which bound the English and Flemish together? Why did the Scots aid the French? Is it likely that the Hundred Years' War would have arisen if the English Kings had not held lands in France?

2. Find out what you can about the English archers and their long-bows. What advantages did the long-bow have over the cross-bow?

3. Write an account in your own words of the life and deeds of the Black Prince.

4. Locate on the map the places connected with the Hundred Years' War.

5. Describe the Battle of Crecy; of Poitiers.

6. Write a brief account of the Black Death. Why do such diseases cause fewer deaths now?

XVI

RICHARD II.,

THE LAST PLANTAGENET KING

POINTS TO BE NOTICED

Dates of Richard II. 's reign; causes of the troubles of his reign. John Wyclif; name given to his followers; what became of them; importance of this movement.

Grievances of the peasants; who stirred them up to rebellion; date of the rebellion; their chief leader; his fate; behavior of the young King; results of the revolt.

Political struggles under Richard; Henry of Bolingbroke; how Richard injured him; return of Bolingbroke and overthrow of Richard; Bolingbroke claims the throne.

Troubled reign of Richard II.

WHEN Edward III. died, in 1377, he was succeeded by his grandson, Richard II. He was the son of the Black Prince, and was only ten years old when he became King. His reign of twenty-two years (1377-1399). was filled with many troubles. These were due to the quarrels of parties while he was under age; to the religious and social changes of the time; and to a combination of weakness and violence in his own character.

Religious

John

A religious movement, started by John Wyclif, a great preacher and university professor at Oxford, was responsible for part of the troubles of his reign. reforms of Wyclif complained bitterly of many evils in Wyclif. the Church, and said that they were due to the fact that the Pope, bishops, and abbots were no longer poor men like Christ and the Apostles, but lived in luxury, and were rulers of great estates. He gathered together a body of "poor priests," whom he sent forth to

live among the people and preach his doctrines. And to aid their work, he translated the Bible, for the first time, from the Latin, which was then used in the churches, into the English tongue spoken by the common people.

If Wyclif had stopped here, all might have been well; but he went further, and attacked the teaching of the church concerning the Lord's Supper. This was too much for many who had supported him, and he began to lose followers.

JOHN WYCLIF

tinent, for burning "heretics," or or teachers of wrong religion; so Wyclif was allowed to retire into the country, where he died a few years afterward. Later a law was passed "for the burning of heretics," and then all the "Lollards" (as those were called who held Wyclif's opinions), were obliged either to give up their opinions, or to suffer death at the stake. More than a century later, when Luther, in Germany, had begun the Reformation of the Church,

and England had broken away from obedience to the Pope, the reformers looked back to Wyclif, and called him "the Morning Star of the Reformation."

The rebellion of the peasants, for which Wyclif was held partly responsible, came in the year 1381. Several things beside his teachings helped to pro

Grievances

of the peasants.

duce it. Since the time of the Black Death, the landlords had tried to keep fast hold on the villains (or "serfs") who were left to them, and would no longer permit them to escape the burdensome duties

PEASANTS PLOWING

PEASANTS BREAKING CLODS WITH MALLETS

which they owed by paying small sums of money. The free peasants also complained bitterly of the laws which Parliament passed to keep down wages, and to prevent

their going where they pleased. And the discontent was brought to a head by a law imposing a new sort of taxa “poll tax," or head tax-upon all the people above fourteen years of age, at a uniform rate for both rich and poor.

The troubles which followed occurred, more or less, all over England. But it was chiefly in the southeastern parts in the counties of Kent and Essex-that the movement was dangerous.