CHAPTER IX
Circa 1399—1485
RISE OF THE MIDDLE CLASS
"Das Alte sturzt, es andert sich die Zeit
Und neues Leben blubt aus den Ruinen."
THE fifteenth century ushered in yet more far-reaching changes in the social condition of the people than any that had gone before. The ideas of dawning change have already been suggested, for the great fabric of the feudal system, which for over four centuries had resisted all pressure, had been hard hit by the Peasant Revolt. Now it was to fall into ruins, from which the great middle class, that "backbone of England," was to rise triumphant. And—paradoxical as it may seem—the barons themselves caused the change. At the height of their wealth, when luxury in food and dress was at its zenith and the poor were
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