The feudal system was unfavourable to the growth of the middle classes. It savoured too much of absolutism. Energy was cramped. Individual effort was possible only within certain limits. In the feudal ages people cared more for protection than for freedom. They bowed to the sovereignty of the feudal lord, and were dependent on his bounty. The services which they were obliged to render prevented them from straying into new paths, and the conditions under which they lived made independent action impossible. It was not until the feudal system was broken down that there was a free course for the development of the middle classes. In the first four centuries after the coming of the Normans, it is the aristocracy who are the history-makers. Roughly speaking, there are only two classes to be considered: the nobles and the serfs--for such the lower classes remained in all the important relations of life--and until the arts of civilization have made some progress, until the resources of the country have been brought into play and foreign commerce has grown into importance, the life of the populace is a somewhat monotonous tale. It has been stated that feudalism raised woman to a higher place in domestic life; that, whereas before she was in a state of subjection, under the feudal system she exercised independent power. Undoubtedly, as a wife woman was a gainer. The mantle of authority with which her husband was invested, fell upon her whenever he was temporarily absent. The _ménage_ of a feudal household certainly gave the lady of the house a dignity, and imposed upon her responsibilities which secured her respect and gave her freedom of action. She was called upon to direct a little army of subordinates, and was her husband’s partner and equal. But this improvement in the status of women is not discernible, except in the governing classes. The women without title, rank, position, wealth, the women of every-day life, profited little. They shared in the subjection of their fathers, brothers, and husbands, and they enjoyed none of the privileges which the feudal system conferred on their more highly placed sisters. In a state of society where the mass of the people were in a dependent position, it was not likely that any special freedom would be granted to or even claimed by women. And in an age when the worship of force was dominant, their physical inferiority told heavily against them. Under feudalism there was no sort of independence possible to women who were born to wealth or rank.