The Black Death marked the beginning of a long period of decadence; and, when recovery began, it was largely due to the strong monarchy of the Tudors and the manner in which they exercised control over many localities that had hitherto pursued an independent, or, at least, a self-centred life of their own. I make this statement very confidently, though I am well aware that it is very difficult to get any standard by which to measure changes in national prosperity; indeed, from some points of view it might seem that the working-classes were particularly well off in the fifteenth century.

It is also true that the cloth trade was flourishing in many parts of England, and was being diffused in villages and not confined to corporate towns; there was great prosperity among growers of wool, but Cambridgeshire had little part in this development. For some reason while Suffolk was “full of manufacturers,” these were never in Cambridgeshire, and therefore this exceptional prosperity does not concern us. In our county there was a shortage of labour, and it was necessary for employers to pay very high wages to get any work done; but even this did not benefit the working-classes in the long run, for many people changed their habits and did not give as much employment as they had done before the pestilence, while all other classes suffered severely.