maker," sank overpowered on the field of Tewkesbury, and with him
perished many of the most powerful of the nobles. The jealousy of
Richard III. swept away his own friends, and the bloody contest on
Bosworth field destroyed the flower of the nobility. The sun of the
Plantagenets went down, leaving the country weak and impoverished,
from a contest in which the barons sought to establish their own
power, to the detriment alike of the Crown and the FREEMEN. The
latter might have exclaimed:

"Till half a patriot, half a coward, grown, We fly from meaner
tyrants to the throne."

The long contest terminated in the defeat alike of the Crown and
the nobles, but the nation suffered severely from the struggle.

The rule of this family proved fatal to the interest of a most
important class, whose rights were jealously guarded by the
Normans. The Liberi Homines, the FREEMEN, who were Odhal occupiers,
holding in capite from the sovereign, nearly disappeared in the
Wars of the Roses. Monarchs who owed their crown to the favor of
the nobles were too weak to uphold the rights of those who held
directly from the Crown, and who, in their isolation, were almost
powerless.

The term FREEMAN, originally one of the noblest in the land,
disappeared in relation to urban tenures, and was applied solely to
the personal rights of civic burghers; instead thereof arose the
term FREEHOLDER from FREE HOLD, which was originally a grant free
from all rent, and only burdened with military service. The term
was subsequently applied to land held for leases for lives as