They had enough of chattels and of rent,
And very gladly would their wives assent;
And, truly, else they had been much to blame.
It is full fair to be yclept madame,
And fair to go to vigils all before,
And have a mantle royally y-bore.

The English State had ceased to be the feudal monarchy --the ramification
of contributory courts and camps--of the crude days of William the
Conqueror and his successors. The Norman lords and their English
dependants no longer formed two separate elements in the body politic. In
the great French wars of Edward III, the English armies had no longer
mainly consisted of the baronial levies. The nobles had indeed, as of
old, ridden into battle at the head of their vassals and retainers; but
the body of the force had been made up of Englishmen serving for pay, and
armed with their national implement, the bow--such as Chaucer's "Yeoman"
carried with him on the ride to Canterbury:--

A sheaf of peacock arrows bright and keen
Under his belt he bare full thriftily.
Well could he dress his tackle yeomanly:
His arrows drooped not with feathers low,
And in his hand he bare a mighty bow.

The use of the bow was specially favoured by both Edward III and his
successor; and when early in the next century the chivalrous Scottish
king, James I (of whom mention will be made among Chaucer's poetic
disciples) returned from his long English captivity to his native land, he
had no more eager care than that his subjects should learn to emulate the
English in the handling of their favourite weapon. Chaucer seems to be