Under pretext of preserving the peace the unenfranchised townsmen united in secret frith-gilds of their own, and mobs rose from time to time to sack the houses of foreigners and the wealthier burgesses.

Nor did London stand alone in this movement.

In all the larger towns the same discontent prevailed, the same social growth called for new institutions, and in their silent revolt against the oppression of the Merchant-gild the Craft-gilds were training themselves to stand forward as champions of a wider liberty in the Barons' War.
[Sidenote: The Villein] Without the towns progress was far slower and more fitful.

It would seem indeed that the conquest of the Norman bore harder on the rural population than on any other class of Englishmen.

Under the later kings of the house of AElfred the number of absolute slaves and the number of freemen had alike diminished.