[History of the English People, Volume III (of 8) by John Richard Green]@TWC D-Link bookHistory of the English People, Volume III (of 8) CHAPTER I 13/132
The Parliamentary title was set aside as usurpation.
The House of York based its claim to the throne on the incapacity of Parliament to set aside pretensions which were based on sheer nearness of blood.
The fall of the House of Lancaster, the accession of the Yorkist kings, must have seemed to the men who had witnessed the struggle a crushing defeat of the Parliament. [Sidenote: Ruin of Feudal Organization] Weakened by failure, discredited by faction, no longer needful as a source of supplies, it was easy for the Monarchy to rid itself of the check of the two Houses, and their riddance at once restored the Crown to the power it had held under the earlier kings.
But in actual fact Edward the Fourth found himself the possessor of a far greater authority than this.
The structure of feudal society fronted a feudal king with two great rival powers in the Baronage and the Church.
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