These conditions of villeinage prevailed in all the countries of western Europe, remaining longest in central Europe, and undergoing modifications in England and France at about the same time. The changes that indicate the, transition from the mediaeval system of agriculture to one more modern were at this time but just beginning to appear, and were not to be completed for a century and a half. But, in order to understand the effects of the Black Death, we must say a word about these changes here. Population was increasing, and land was growing scarce. The old, wasteful methods of agriculture could not compete with the new conditions in trade and industry. The Crusades had increased the amount of money in circulation, first in the towns and at court, and gradually in the country districts. Two results followed: (1) lords let out their lands at a money rent to farmers, sometimes their own bailiffs, who tried to make a profit out of agriculture; (2) many villeins began to commute their labor services for money, while others, attracted by the new opportunities in the towns, began to desert the manors. In order to fill their places, hired laborers, hitherto very rare, had to be obtained. Thus a new system of leased farms and paid labor began to be introduced into the agricultural organization.

The Effects of the Black Death: Statute of Laborers

The substitution of the hired laborer for the old villein had not by any means become general at the time of the Black Death, but "wages" instead of works" had gained an important place. The effect of that great plague was to depopulate the manors, and at the same time to create a great scarcity in the supply of hired laborers. The demand for laborers remained the same, for the same amount of land had to be cultivated, and the lords refused to relax, in any degree, their demands for revenue. Therefore wages immediately rose. Labor increased in value, while land decreased. Prices, too, rose, and the situation was rendered worse by bad crops, murrain among the sheep, and more frequent desertion of the villeins. Then king and parliament stepped in and tried to regulate wages by legislation. Now, parliament was, in the main, a body of landowners, so that what it did was done in its own interest, and not in the interest of the peasantry.

First, in 1349, the king issued a decree addressed to the sheriffs, bidding them see that every man and woman, free and bond, return to service at the old wages. This decree was embodied by parliament in a statute, in 1351, known as the Statute of Laborers, designed to keep wages, by main force, where they had been before the Black Death. The statute forbade laborers in the country and artisans in the cities to receive more than they had been customarily paid in 1346, and forbade, likewise, lords of towns and manors to pay higher wages, on penalty of a fine treble the amount paid. This futile ordinance was repeated six times in the ensuing thirty years, but the events of 1381 show how useless this attempt at legislation was.

Last Years of Edward III

The period from 1360 to 1377 was one of steady decline in the greatness and brilliancy of the king's reign. Notwithstanding the peace of Bretigny, the war with France was renewed on one pretext or another, and a number of campaigns were fought. In behalf of Pedro of Spain, Edward himself fought in Aquitaine in conjunction with the Black Prince, who was governor of that province (1367). The Black Prince spent a year and much money putting down revolts among the Poitevins (1369-1370), and in 1370' cruelly massacred many of the citizens of Limoges. After 1370, province after province in France withdrew its allegiance from the king of England. The French king, Charles V, and his able general, Bertrand du Guesclin, regained the better part of what had been lost at Bretigny; and though John of Gaunt, son of Edward III, ravaged the country from Calais to Bordeaux, he did little to restore English prestige or English control. Gregory XI, at Avignon, made every effort to bring about peace between France and England, even delaying his return to Rome in order to accomplish his object. But his efforts were vain. France was fighting for the old purpose of driving the English out of the country, and was succeeding. By 1375 the English held little more than the cities of Bordeaux, Bayonne, and Calais.

At home administration had became very corrupt. The king was mentally broken and under the control of John of Gaunt. The Black Prince was suffering from a wasting disease which had compelled him to return from Aquitaine in 1370, and which wholly unfitted him for taking part in the government. A clique of the friends of John of Gaunt controlled affairs. Lord Latimer, Lord Neville, and Richard Lyons, a merchant of London, systematically robbed the nation by illegal exactions, by receiving privileges and abusing them, and by raising prices and appropriating the proceeds.