[Sidenote: 2. Causes for the existence of these bands of beggars.] [Sidenote: (1) The break-up of the feudal system and consequent lessening of employment in war and service.] As these bands of vagrants were found in so many countries at once, the principal causes for their existence cannot be peculiar to England, or to any one country, but must be common to all the countries affected. It was closely connected with lack of employment: the difficulty had been for the masters to find workmen, the problem was now for the men to find work, and this in spite of the fact that at the beginning of the sixteenth century commerce and manufactures were rapidly extending. The age was a time of transition, and old occupations were becoming unnecessary. The feudal society of the Middle Ages was giving place to the modern industrial and commercial community. War, public and private, and service with great nobles had formerly occupied large numbers of the male population. But the fifteenth century had witnessed the growth of central authorities strong enough to preserve order and to control the power of the great lords. In Germany, the towns were growing in importance and had often become independent of feudal superiors; in France, Louis XI. had overcome the last serious opposition of the French barons to the growth of the royal authority, while in England, the Wars of the Roses and the policy of Henry VII. had combined to break the power of the English nobility. Order had given place to disorder, lawsuits had succeeded private wars. The power of the nobles was no longer maintained by force; they had no longer the need of many followers to fight their battles. The oft-quoted saying of the chieftain with reference to the Highlands in the last century might be applied with little variation to the position of the nobles under Henry VIII. "When I was a young man the point upon which every Highland gentleman rested his importance, was the number of men whom his estate could support, the question next rested on the amount of his stock of black cattle, it is now come to respect the number of sheep and I suppose our posterity will inquire how many rats and mice an estate will produce[34]." Power in the Highlands then, and in England at the beginning of the sixteenth century, passed from the leaders of men to the holders of wealth. This revolution in the basis of power had a considerable effect upon the labour market. The chief occupation of the Middle Ages had become unnecessary; men whom the nobles had formerly been glad to enlist had now to seek other means of earning a livelihood. Moreover, the employment which had now disappeared was one which especially afforded an outlet for men of restless character, the kind of people who under adverse conditions became the sturdy vagabonds of the sixteenth century. Sir Thomas More expressly states that the English thieves of the time were often discharged retainers[35], and