My British Empire

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The resplendent Delphi Palace made every guest who came here couldn't help being amazed. They were sincerely envious of the wealth of the Matthew family, and couldn't help but feel some sour water in their hearts.

But if they are asked to build one, they can only shake their heads with wry smiles, with more than enough energy.

You know, in order to build this exquisite Delphi Palace, the Matthew family spent two generations, forty-four years, and spent a huge figure of 50,000 pounds as expenditure, which is not so amazing for ordinary families wealth.

Therefore, although there were rumors that the Matthew family was all fools, Sir Matthew didn't care. He knew that this palace not only brought great honor to the Matthew family in Oxfordshire, but also brought great honor to the Matthew family. There are huge indirect benefits.

We know that the advent of the Age of Discovery and the Reformation quietly changed England's traditional moral standards.

People's desire for wealth has reached a perverted level, and even the evaluation of a family and an individual is no longer his knowledge and cultivation, but his wealth.

Therefore, since owning the famous Delphi Palace in Oxfordshire, the prestige of the Matthew family has skyrocketed, and in England, with prestige, everything is possible.

With the help of prestige, the Matthew family had a seat in the Oxford Magistrate's Committee. Later, with the help of power, he united with other families to enclose the land wantonly. The Matthew family became one of the best big families in Oxfordshire, and their influence became more and more powerful. Huge up.

But at this time, in the Delphi Palace, a group of gentlemen who were regarded as superior in the eyes of the common people were frowning.

The contemporary Sir Matthew Parker. Matthew is only in his early thirties, with wavy long black hair, a high nose bridge, and deep eye sockets. His whole person reveals a refined temperament.

At the same time, sitting together were the patriarchs of the other three major families, Began Thomas, Chabos Owen, and Brill John.

Everyone sat together with serious expressions, but the atmosphere in the room seemed low and dignified.

Tell me, what to do with this young man from London?

As a young man, Charles Owen, who was only twenty years old, felt a little aggrieved by the dreary atmosphere, and couldn't help asking.

Seeing this, the others also turned their gazes to Brill John, who was in contemplation. This bald old man in his fifties, the beard on his chin was well combed, and his eyes were deep and calm, as if it was a small piece of work. Things are normal.

The John family is the most powerful family among the four families present, and Brill John has always been known for his wisdom, so everyone turned their attention to him instead of Sir Matthew, the owner of Delphi Palace.

In this regard, Sir Matthew has no complaints. As a new family, it is still small compared to the John family, which has been around for hundreds of years.

Don't worry, at present he is only active under our noses. He has been under our surveillance, and they won't get any powerful news!

Brill John paused for a moment, glanced at the eager crowd, took a breath, and continued, Besides, he's here this time mainly to deal with Justice Felton John, so what does it have to do with us?

Speaking of Felton John, Brill showed a contemptuous smile and said sentence by sentence.

My sir, that greedy fellow knows our situation very well, and I'm afraid he—

Began Thomas, who had blond curly hair, looked at Brill's indifferent expression, and said directly, with a hint of blame in his tone.

Hehe! Brill smiled lightly as if hearing some joke, shook his head, and asked directly: Mr. Thomas, don't we go down first? Don't let that greedy idiot be killed by others? Arrest?

You mean? asked Sir Matthew in a tone of surprise.

The faces of the others were roughly the same, full of surprise and puzzlement.

You know, if a circuit judge is killed, the consequences will be much more serious. This is a direct challenge to the majesty of the king, so that no one can escape.

Seeing the terrified expressions on their faces, Brill could only sigh in his heart, pretending to sigh, and continued to explain: In this world, there are countless ways to die. For example, our Lord Judge has It would be a pity if you accidentally fell down the stairs!

As he spoke, Brill didn't show a trace of regret on his face, but instead smiled, looking so happy and happy.

Hearing such an explanation, the others also smiled, and the atmosphere in the air suddenly became much happier.

For Felton John, an insatiable guy, it was really unbearable for everyone. He was cutting the fat of everyone's mouths again and again. This kind of thing involving profit completely exhausted everyone's patience.

This matter has to start from the circle.

The so-called enclosure refers to the aristocrats and gentlemen turning the originally public land into their private land by riding horses and laying wooden stakes.

Ancient England was in a primitive mode, in which in the countryside all land, except private land, was communal and belonged to all the villagers.

The enclosure movement is that the nobles and gentlemen rode horses, laid wooden stakes, and drove away the farmers who were farming on the public land, so that the public land became their private.

Just like the land in our Chinese countryside, all the land belongs to the collective, but at this time, if some bullies allocate all the land as their own private, this kind of behavior is not tolerated by the government, and it was also in the Tudor Dynasty in this way.

In the 150 years after 1488, the Tudor government issued at least eleven Acts of Parliament and eight Inquiry Reports to ease the enclosure movement.

However, the effect is not obvious,

For example, in Oxfordshire, from 1547 to the present 1550, at least 10,000 acres of land were enclosed.

In this regard, the Tudor royal family specially set up an anti-enclosure committee, stipulating that some enclosure behaviors are illegal, and half of the enclosure proceeds need to be paid to the royal family.

As for the Anti-Rowage Committee, which gradually became marginalized with the loss of power of Thomas Wolsey, the circuit judges took up this task at this time.

In this regard, the four major families joined hands to bribe Felton John, but Felton John was insatiable and asked again and again. The accumulated amount reached two thousand pounds, which was almost one-tenth of the income from the enclosure. up.

And a few days ago, he also asked the four major families for a hundred acres of fertile land. It seemed that he also knew that he was going too far and threatened them.

How could the four major families be satisfied with him.