Page:The child's pictorial history of England; (IA childspictorialh00corn).pdf/135

 the nobles, the knights, and the bishops, and abbots.

10. But Edward the First made a law in favour of the sale and purchase of all lands except those held immediately of the king; and Edward the Third gave his own vassals leave to sell their estates.

11. Other laws were afterwards made, by which landed property was made liable to seizure for debt, and might be given by will, or sold at the pleasure of the owner. And Henry the Seventh, by another law, further encouraged the sale of land, and the consequent division of large estates.

12. Then many of the nobles, who had more land than they wanted, sold some of it to wealthy merchants and others, who built large mansions, to which they often gave their own family name, as for instance, if the name of the proprietor happened to be Burton, he would probably call his residence Burton Hall.

13. These country gentlemen formed quite a new class of people in England, and they have ever since that time continued to increase in wealth, rank, and importance.

14. A strange thing happened in the reign of Henry the Seventh, which has made some people think the sons of Edward the Fourth