Decay of the Manor 37 



from the better conditions which were opening to them. Gower 

 describes the attitude of the hired labourers. * They are 

 unwilling to serve anyone by the year ; a man will hardly hold 

 them even for a month. . . . Scarcely one workman in a thousand 

 will stick to his agreement. . . . He refuses any common kind of 

 food ; this beer or meat is no use to him, and he won't come 

 back to-morrow unless you provide better fare '. 



The peasants demanded (i) the abolition of bondage, (2) a 

 general pardon, (3) the abolition of tolls, (4) the payment of 

 money rents instead of labour rents, and that the rent of all 

 land held in bondage and by service should be no more than 

 fourpence an acre. When Wat Tyler had been killed and the 

 revolt put down, the Essex men asked the King that they should 

 be made equal in liberty to their lords. He replied, ' peasants you 

 have been and are, and you will remain in bondage not as hitherto 

 but incomparably more vile '. Both sides were angry. The 

 peasants gained little or nothing at the time, but had to settle 

 down and win liberty by minute degrees rather than by giant 

 strides. Enlightened men among the aristocracy began to see 

 the disadvantage of villainage. Fitzherbert, writing about 1523, 

 deplored its continuance as a disgrace to the country. 



If the peasants did not obtain an improvement in their status, 

 they continued to prosper during the fifteenth century. Wages 

 rose, and with fair prices for their wool and what they had to 

 sell many of the villains became reasonably well off. They k*ept 

 quiet amidst the wars waged between York and Lancaster, and 

 as a class they fared better than their lords and masters. The 

 Wars of the Roses lessened the power of the barons ; the teaching 

 of reformers like Wycliffe, and still more the luxury, greed, and 

 selfishness of the Church, diminished its influence, and made it 

 and its property the object of attack. When Edward IV came 

 to the throne his power was greater than that of any previous 

 king. Parliament had played an important and splendid part on 



