Why did the nobility experience instability in the Late Middle Ages?
In political terms, there was a shift of power away from the great landowners and towards the towns. The craftsmen, merchants, administrators and professional men became more wealthy and powerful. From Henry II on, law gradually moved under the influence of the king.. People in dispute with the nobility could now have their cases heard in the king’s courts, which were impartial, rather than by the baronial courts which were not. When towns and cities learned that walled structures would protect their town, it was no longer easy for a knight on horseback to terrorize and plunder. The invention and steady improvement of the English longbow whose arrows could penetrate chain-mail. The steady development of artillery started to make castles decorative rather than useful. The monarchs of that age had realized that the establishment and improvement of a Parliament made up of commoners gave them valuable support in their continuing power struggles with the nobles, and also made it easier to c
