The first hit to feudal society occured in the Middle Ages, when the Black Plague struck in 1348. In Europe as a whole, historians estimate that the plague killed about 30% of the population, a level of death that affected everyone, from peasants to lords. This intense decimation of the population meant there were fewer laborers to work the fields and fewer lords to oversee them and pay wages. Because of this labor shortage, agricultural workers were able to ask for higher wages and, in some cases, move up the social ladder to fill in more skilled positions.

The apparent leveling due to plague was short-lived, though, as trade, especially in the cloth-making industry, grew and flourished into a profitable commercial economy. Many of late-medieval English landowners opted to raise sheep instead of crops. This new focus on profit caused many peasants to lose their agricultural livelihood and move to cities in search of new occupations. This shift in both types of earning and population reinforced a disparity between classes. As England’s economy prospered, the wealthy got wealthier from trade. Many merchants grew very prosperous and were able to associate with and live like nobility, building large homes and buying luxury goods.

In early modern England, social hierarchy remained crucial. At the head was the monarch, surrounded by a court of members of the nobility; these were people with hereditary titles such as baron, earl, and duke. Efforts were made to preserve the social structure as the growing middle class was able to afford many of the same clothing that had been distinguishing markers of the nobility. Sumptuary laws, which were proclamations that controlled which sorts of people could wear particular garments, fabrics, colors, and accessories, pre-dated early modern period, but they were strengthened and enforced during the Elizabethan era. Elizabeth I claimed that the sumptuary laws were meant to preserve her subjects from wasting money on expensive clothes.

Below the nobility were the gentry and wealthy merchants. Gentry were landholders, including knights, who were considered gentleman. They owned land and some of their wealth derived from agriculture, but they did not need to do manual work and were generally well-educated. As trade became increasingly central to wealth, those members of the gentry that produced goods for trade became wealthier along with the merchants. The extreme wealth of some merchants, particularly those who imported luxury goods that the newly rich could afford, would rival some of nobility and brought a new tier to the hierarchical structure and interaction between classes.

Below the gentry and merchants were yeomen and craftsman. Yeomen owned their own lands; however, they worked alongside their laborers. Craftsmen included the many artisans who made and sold goods produced with skilled labor, including weavers, the cloth merchants known as drapers, the workers called glaziers who made and installed glass windows, stone masons, carpenters, and many more. Many yeomen and craftsmen were literate, although they did not always attend grammar school and almost never university.

Those on the lowest rung of the social ladder were laborers. These individuals were generally unskilled and very poor. Agricultural laborers in the countryside lived very simply in small cottages. Urban laborers struggled more, due to the inconsistent work cities offered. Laborers were generally illiterate and poor. It was almost impossible to break out the cycle of destitution these individuals lived. The rising wealth of the many social classes did not trickle down to the lowest levels of society.