Houses of Parliament finally separated from one another, and when Edward picked a quarrel with Archbishop Stratford, the Lords suc

Gloucester Cathedral. The choir, looking east: built between 1340 and 1350.

cessfully insisted that no member of their House could be tried excepting by his peers. The Commons, on the other hand, were striving

1341

THE HOUSE OF COMMONS

245

-not always successfully-to maintain their hold upon taxation. In 1341 they made Edward a large money grant on condition of his yielding to their demands, and Edward (whose constitutional intentions were seldom proof against his wish to retain the power of the purse) shamelessly broke his engagement after receiving the money. On other occasions the Commons were more successful; yet, after all, the composition of their House was of more importance than

The upper chamber or solar at Sutton Courtenay manor-house.
Date, about 1350.

any special victory they might gain. In it the county membersor knights of the shire-sat side by side with the burgesses of the towns. In no other country in Europe would this have been possible. The knights of the shire were gentlemen, who on the Continent were reckoned amongst the nobility, and despised townsmen far too much to sit in the same House with them. In England there was the same amalgamation of classes in Parliament

as on the battle-field. When once gentlemen and burgesses formed part of the same assembly, they would come to have common interests; and, in any struggle in which the merchants were engaged, it would be a great gain to them that a class of men trained to arms would be inclined to take their part.

16. Edward's Triumph. 1347.-Edward's return after the surrender of Calais was followed by an outburst of luxury. As the sea-rovers of Normandy and Calais had formerly plundered Eng

Interior of the Hall at Penshurst, Kent: showing the screen with minstrels' gallery over it, and the brazier for fire in the middle: built about 1340.

lishmen, English landsmen now plundered Normandy and Calais. "There was no woman who had not gotten garments, furs, featherbeds, and utensils from the spoils." Edward surrounded himself with feasting and jollity. About this time he instituted the Order of the Garter, and his tournaments were thronged with gay knights and gayer ladies in gorgeous attires. The very priests caught the example, and decked themselves in unclerical garments. Even architecture lent itself to the prevailing taste for magnificence. The beautiful Decorated style which had come into use towards the

1272-1360 DECORATED AND PERPENDICULAR STYLES 247

end of the reign of Edward I.-and which may be seen in the central tower of Lincoln Cathedral (see p. 227), in the west front of Howden Church (see p. 230), and in the nave of York Minster (see p. 238)—

Norborough Hall, Northamptonshire. A manor-house built about 1350.
The dormer windows and addition to the left are of much later date.

was, in the reign of Edward III., superseded by the Perpendicular style, in which beauty of form was abandoned for the sake of breadth, as in the choir of Gloucester and the nave of Winchester (see pp. 244, 1 Lichfield Cathedral (p. 213) is transitional.

276). Roofs become wide, as in the Hall of Penshurst (see p. 246), and consequently halls were larger and better adapted to crowded gatherings than those at Meare and Norborough (p. 247).

17. The Black Death. 1348.-In the midst of this luxurious society arrived, in 1348, a terrible plague which had been sweeping over Asia and Europe, and which in modern times has been styled the Black Death. No plague known to history was so destructive of life. Half of the population certainly perished, and some think that the number of those who died must be reckoned at two-thirds.

18. The Statute of Labourers. 1351.-This enormous destruction of life could not fail to have important results on the economic

Ploughing.

condition of the country. The process of substituting money rents for labour service, which had begun some generations before (see p. 168), had become very general at the accession of Edward III. so that the demesne land which the lord kept in his own

hands was on most estates cultivated by hired labour. Now, when at least half of the labourers had disappeared, those who remained, having less competition to fear, demanded higher wages, whilst at the same time the price of the produce of the soil was the same or less than it had been before. The question affected not merely