The Plantagenets: The Kings That Made Britain - Plot & Excerpts
He was writing his only extant poem, The Vision of Piers Plowman, during the closing years of the reign, so his reflections on the state of society must be seen as one sensitive observer’s assessment of the state of England under the seventh Plantagenet king. The picture he paints is bleak indeed, and it is supported by the evidence of contemporary chroniclers and the verdict of most later historians.Edward III’s reign falls into two parts, divided by the appalling cataclysm of the Black Death (1348–50), but it was not only that natural disaster that was responsible for the decay of the existing social order. Feudalism was collapsing under the weight of its own complex (and often contradictory) structures. The power of the monarch was being challenged by parliament, which established an existence of its own, separate from the will of the king. The power of the church was being challenged by protesters at all levels of society. In foreign affairs the old disputes between the French and English kings over the vaguely defined area of Aquitaine expanded into a contest for the crown of France, setting in motion what would later be known as the Hundred Years War.
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