PROGRESS DURING THE PLANTAGENET PERIOD. 
GENEALOGY OF HENRY TUDOR, EARL OF RICHMOND, 
EDWARD II, 
John of Gaunts= 
Calherine Swyuford, 
john Beaufort, Tahel of Somerset, 
John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, 
Mangan Beaufort marricd 
Catherine of France 
(widow of Henry V.}= 
Owen je 
Edmund Tudor. 
HENRY, Earl of Richmond. 
CHAPTER XXIX. 
POLITICAL, SOCIAL, AND LITERARY PROGRESS DURING THE 
PLANTAGENET PERIOD. 
L_During the three centuries and a quarter intervening between the 
accession of Henry of Anjou and the death at Bosworth 
SE of Richard of (Houcester, the political and social institu- 
“ * tions of England underwent many important changes. 
2. It became an accepted principle of the constitution that the 
throne should be oceupied by an hereditary Soverecign 
Limited ; ; "a . Yamitine 
OHAFCHN, zuling with limited powers. "The limiting power was 
exercised by Parliament, and had respect to three grand 
principles :--(1.) That, without the Parliament, the King could neither 
make, repeal, nor alter laws; (2.) That no tax could be imposed without 
the sanetion of Parliament; (3.) That the Sovereign must rule accord- 
ing to law, his responsible advisers being answerable to Parliament in 
2ase of its violation. 
3, With the growth of parliamentary power came the breaking up 
of the Fendal System, "The barons ceased to be retainers 
Breaking of the Crown, rendering military service for lands held, 
up of the They developed into an independent peerage of five 
5 uCa orders or degrees-—to wit, dukes, marquises, earls, vis- 
ystem. 5 ‘ 
counts, and barons. These titles, with their accompany- 
ing privileges, though in the first instance conferred by letters patent 
from the Sovereign, are hereditary. 
4. The same causes that enlarged the powers of Parliament, and 
limited the prerogatives of the King, tended to abolish 
Extinotion villeinage or serfdom. This desirable result was also 
A much furthered by the active exertions of the clergy. 
The Church, imitating the example of her Divine Founder, 
denounced oppression, and secured the emancipation of thousands of 
unhappy serfs. The War of the Roses, by sweeping away alınost 
‘he entire nobility, removed the only class especially interested in re: 
taining villeinage, and this virtually extinguished it,