THE HISTORICAL BASIS OF SOCIALISM

IN ENGLAND.

CHAPTER I.

THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE PEOPLE.

IN looking back through the history of our country, there is one period when by common consent men and women who worked with their hands were better off than at any time before or since. It may be doubted indeed whether any European community ever enjoyed such rough plenty as the English yeomen, craftsmen, and labourers of the fifteenth century. These days of well-being for the mass of the people lasted from the end of the fourteenth until the first quarter of the sixteenth century. The period includes in foreign affairs the battles of Cressy and Agincourt, and the other exploits of Henry V.; but it also saw the complete defeat of the English by Joan of Arc, and their expulsion from France. At home, the dethronement of Richard II. led up to the bloody Wars of the Roses, and the crowning victory of Bosworth Field, which seated Henry VII. on the throne. Great risings of the peasantry had obtained or confirmed for the people the freedom from personal slavery, and the security for their own property, which made the English of the fifteenth century the envy of Europe. Merry England it was then in spite of all drawbacks; and the conditions of life which gave the workers such comfort

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and prosperity were not upset by any of the troubles of the time. Defeat abroad and pestilence at home, civil wars, and formidable insurrections did not seriously affect the general welfare. The main body of the workers fought their own fights, and returned peaceably to their towns or homesteads, looking on with the calmest indifference whilst the barons and their retainers cut one another's throats for the cause of York or Lancaster.

Learning in our modern sense the people certainly had not; but the education of the time was wide-spread, the universities have never been so crowded since by all classes, and Piers Ploughman and Chaucer, Wyclif and Caxton, laid the ground-work of that homely English speech which, properly used, is to-day the strongest and the clearest of modern tongues. The homes of the people were filthy,* and much that we now hold to be necessary for health was thought quite useless; nevertheless the finest buildings in these islands are of this date, whilst the stone-carving and woodwork, the stained glass and tapestry which remain, testify to taste and training of a very high order. As to the labourers, they ate, drank, and worked well, and foreigners gazed in wonder at the rich clothing, sturdy frames, and independent mien of our English common men. The truth, of course, is that below the troubles and disturbances on the surface the great main stream of human life and happiness flowed on unchecked, owing to the steady operation of economical and social causes which were peculiar to this epoch. The king, the nobles, and the clergy were the leaders of a free, and, in the main, prosperous community; and, although cases of tyranny were not rare, and the upper classes then as ever lost no chance of

* Not worse, however, than the cottages of our agricultural labourers to-day in any respect. See Chapter X.

increasing their wealth and power at the expense of those below, the craftsmen and labourers were nowise behindhand in championing the liberties they had so hardly won.

*

At the end of the fourteenth century (1381-1400), serfdom and villenage were practically done away in England. The great risings of Wat Tyler and Flannoc (1381), though put down at the moment by treachery and false promises, really secured freedom for the mass of the people. Such an insurrection as the Peasants' War did not arise from the trifling cause commonly put forward. The priest John Ball had genuine grievances to point to and definite reforms to propose when he addressed his stirring speeches to tens of thousands of his stalwart countrymen. Thus was he in the habit of addressing Tyler's followers in support of great social and political principles :—“ My friends, things cannot be well for us in this England of ours, nor ever will, until all things shall be in common; when there shall be neither lord nor vassal, and all grades shall be levelled; when the nobles shall be no more masters than we. How ill have they treated us! and why do they thus keep us in bondage? Are not Adam and Eve their ancestors as well as ours? What can they show, and what reason can they give, why they should be more masters than we? except, maybe, because they make us labour and work for them to spend. They are clothed in velvets and rich stuffs, trimmed with ermine and other furs, whilst we are forced to wear coarse cloth. They have wines, spices, and nice bread, whilst we have only rye and straw refuse; if we drink it must be water. They have grand houses and homesteads, but we must face wind and rain as we labour

Professor Thorold Rogers is undoubtedly right in his remarks as to the effect of the Peasants' War. Though the rising itself was defeated, the people practically won.