On the Continent, and especially along the Rhine, the struggle was as fierce as the supremacy of the older burghers had been complete.

In Koeln the craftsmen had been reduced to all but serfage, and the merchant of Brussels might box at his will the ears of "the man without heart or honour who lives by his toil." Such social tyranny of class over class brought a century of bloodshed to the cities of Germany; but in England the tyranny of class over class was restrained by the general tenor of the law, and the revolution took for the most part a milder form.

The longest and bitterest strife of all was naturally at London.

Nowhere had the territorial constitution struck root so deeply, and nowhere had the landed oligarchy risen to such a height of wealth and influence.

The city was divided into wards, each of which was governed by an alderman drawn from the ruling class.