Warwick castle and its earls : from Saxon times to the present day . aronage, as a collectiveforce, had ceased to be. The weight of their armour,hindering their flight, no less than their courage andferocity, had made them the principal suflerers inthe cases of defeat and massacre; and nearly everydefeat had been followed by a bloody assize. Few ofthem, whether Yorkists or Lancastrians, had survivedthe slaughter ; fewer still survived without the dissipa-tion of their resources, if not the confiscation of theirestates. In this new condition of things the monarchy hadnothing to fear from them;
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Warwick castle and its earls : from Saxon times to the present day . aronage, as a collectiveforce, had ceased to be. The weight of their armour, hindering their flight, no less than their courage andferocity, had made them the principal suflerers inthe cases of defeat and massacre; and nearly everydefeat had been followed by a bloody assize. Few ofthem, whether Yorkists or Lancastrians, had survivedthe slaughter ; fewer still survived without the dissipa-tion of their resources, if not the confiscation of theirestates. In this new condition of things the monarchy hadnothing to fear from them; and it happened that asuccession of strong kings kept them in the place towhich circumstances had reduced them. Edward IV.was a strong king. So was Henry VII. ; and so, ina still greater degree, was Henry VIII, We nolonger hear, therefore, of the barons standing up tothe kings and wresting reforms from them. Thestrong rule of an absolute sovereign was naturallypreferred by the trading classes to the lawlessnessof the feudal system. The barons, therefore, were 2 20. Warwick Castle <*- dependent upon the royal favour for the position thatthey enjoyed. Such insurrections as they raised, being no longer on the old scale, furnish no realexception to this rule. For a revolution backed by aprinciple, we have to wait until the reign of Charles I.;and that revolution was effected, not by the barons, but by the House of Commons. Henry VH. was jealous of the military house-holds of the barons. These had been forbidden byEdward IV. in the Statute of Liveries; but thatstatute had not been universally obeyed. Henry VII.enforced it even against his own most valued friends.His devoted adherent the Earl of Oxford entertainedhim, and he found two lines of retainers in livery drawnup for his ceremonious reception. Thank you foryour good cheer, my lord, he said ; but I must notendure to have my laws broken in my sight. Myattorney must speak with you. And the attorneyspoke with the Earl of Oxford,