Wars of The Roses - Social Change

Social Change

The fifteenth century was an age of escalating change in society with a middle class grown more prosperous and influential through its mercantile interests and a lower class, fuelled by the teachings of the Lollards, that increasingly questioned the established order. Among the consequences were a degree of social anarchy and a lessening of respect for authority and the law. The issues escalated from the beginning of Henry VI's reign in 1422 with widespread complaints about corruption, public disorder, riots and the maladministration of justice.

By the 1450s, the situation had become urgent with law and order in a state of collapse and crime on the increase. The biggest problem was that soldiers returning from the wars in France found little to welcome them at home and found themselves destitute. Already inured to violence but now freed from military discipline, many took to a life of brigandage and law-breaking. Some of these became employed by noblemen as armed thugs whose job was to intimidate, assault and even murder their employer's enemies. Enforcement of law and order was the responsibility of the King's Council, which effectively governed the country in the name of the king, but throughout the reign of Henry VI, the Council did nothing to promote order and failed to control the magnates. The chronicler John Hardyng wrote: "In every shire, with jacks and sallets clean, misrule doth rise and maketh neighbours war". Most criminals appear to have got away with their crimes. Of those who were caught, many were acquitted while others were granted pardons issued in the name of Henry VI.

The prevailing disorder of the period did not stem the creation of wealth by the merchant class. The wool trade slowly declined after 1450 but this was offset by increased demand from abroad for woollen cloth, tin, lead, leather and other products. Calais, which remained in English hands after the rest of England's French territories were lost in 1453, was the chief wool market, attracting merchants from all over Europe. The stability of Calais was therefore crucial to the merchant classes, but it was undermined during the Wars of the Roses when feuding magnates regarded it as a refuge in exile or, more alarmingly, as a springboard for invasion of England.