Even in England, though feudalism had far less hold than elsewhere, the noble and the priest formed effective checks on the monarchy.

But at the close of the Wars of the Roses these older checks no longer served as restraints upon the action of the Crown.

With the growth of Parliament the weight of the Baronage as a separate constitutional element in the realm, even the separate influence of the Church, had fallen more and more into decay.

For their irregular and individual action was gradually substituted the legal and continuous action of the three Estates; and now that the assembly of the estates practically ceased it was too late to revive the older checks which in earlier days had fettered the action of the Crown.

Nor was the growth of Parliament the only cause for the weakness of these feudal restraints.