To-day mediæval buildings are to be found all over England. The
majority of them are examples of an architecture that has not been
surpassed for majesty, beauty, size, and constructional skill. Such
buildings, without the help of the literary and other memorials,
testify by themselves to the greatness of the Middle Ages.

Through the fifteenth century England continued to be in a state of
political unrest. There were wars and risings both abroad and at home,
for besides the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453) and the Wars of the
Roses (1455-1485) there were wars with the Welsh and the Scots, as
well as disorders made by powerful, intriguing barons. The barons and
great landowners took advantage of the weak royal rule to increase
their own power. Parliament, especially the House of Commons,
succeeded in the first half of the century in strengthening its
constitutional position, but during the Wars of the Roses it became
less truly representative of the solid part of the nation, the middle
class, and more and more a party machine worked by the baronial
factions. The proportion of people wanting peace and firm government
steadily increased, and, when the internecine Wars of the Roses, which
affected the lords and kings far more than the people, were followed
by the protection and order provided without excessive cost by the
Tudors, it was the people who most welcomed the change.

The towns were, however, comparatively little disturbed by these
perpetual disorders. The mayors and corporations as a rule guided
their cities through difficult times with politic shrewdness. Town
life developed through flourishing trade and an increasing sense of
municipal unity, and municipal importance.