an
hereditary class, and before long they too were exempted from crown
taxation. In many cases the armigers were raised to the rank of knights.
Thus the wealthy landowners increased in power, while the poor, who
constituted the great body of the nation, grew ever poorer. Many, to
escape the taxes shifted to their shoulders from the shoulders of the
magnates, sank into the class of tenants, with whom, indeed, they now
had much in common. The sword had raised the strong into a privileged
aristocracy, and degraded the weak into a down-trodden peasantry.

The aristocracy and the Church,--these were the thorns that sprang up to
check the nation's growth. Each had had the same source,--a power
granted by the people. But no sooner were they independent of their
benefactors, than they made common cause in oppressing the peasantry who
had given them birth. They found their point of union in the Cabinet.
This was originally a body of men whom the king summoned whenever he
needed counsel or support. Naturally he sought support among the chief
men of his realm. As the power of the Church and aristocracy increased,
the king was practically forced to summon the chief persons in these
classes to his Cabinet, and furthermore, in most cases, to follow their
advice; so that by the close of the thirteenth century the Cabinet had
become a regular institution, whose members, known as Cabinet lords,
governed rather than advised the king. In the early part of the
fourteenth century this institution succeeded in passing a law that each
new king must summon his Cabinet immediately after his election. The
same law provided that no foreigner could be a member of the Cabinet;
that the archbishop should be _ex officio_ a member; that twelve laymen
should be summoned, but no more; and that, in addition, the king might
summon as many of the bishops and clergy as he wished. As a matter of
fact this law was never followed. The Cabinet lords practically formed
themselves into a close corporation, appointing their own successors or
compelling the king to appoint whom they desired. Generally the members
were succeeded by their sons, and in very many instances we find fathers
and sons sitting in the Cabinet together. A person once a Cabinet lord
was such for life. The law providing that the archbishop should have a
seat in the Cabinet was strictly followed, and in practice the bishops
were also always members. The other clergy seem never to have been
summ