We can see the growth of a fierce spirit of resistance through the statutes which strove in vain to repress it.

In the towns, where the system of forced labour was applied with even more rigour than in the country, strikes and combinations became frequent among the lower craftsmen.

In the country the free labourers found allies in the villeins whose freedom from manorial service was questioned.

These were often men of position and substance, and throughout the eastern counties the gatherings of "fugitive serfs" were supported by an organized resistance and by large contributions of money on the part of the wealthier tenantry.
[Sidenote: Renewal of the War] With plague, famine, and social strife in the land, it was no time for reaping the fruits even of such a victory as Crecy.

Luckily for England the pestilence had fallen as heavily on her foe as on herself.