ceased to be what they had been so long--the shock of mail-clad
knights meeting each other at full charge.

The long-bow made noble and peasant equal on the field of battle.
The revolution was made complete later on by gunpowder.



CHAPTER XIV--THE RISE OF THE PEASANT



I have told you much about princes and soldiers, but very little
about the lowly life of peasants, and the trade of towns.

The conquest of Wales, by Norman baron and English king, tended to
raise the serf to the level of the freeman. The chief causes of the
rise of the serf were the following:

1 The ignorance of the English officials. The Norman baron very
often paid close attention to the privileges of the classes he ruled,
and the Welsh freeman retained his superiority. But the English
officials--and Edward II. found that they were far too numerous in
Wales--often refused to distinguish between a Welshman who was an
innate freeman and a Welshman who lived on a serf maenol. Their aim
was to make them all pay the same tax.

2. The fall in the value of money. At the time of the Norman
Conquest, silver coins were rare, and their value high. But, in
exchange for cloth and wool, of arrows and spears, of mountain ponies