10 sentences with “commoners”

That said, there were great social distances separating the elites from the commoners in ancient Rome.

At this early stage, the commoners had little real political power; the importance was the precedent of meeting to discuss politics.

Meanwhile, the average plebeian had long since lost his representation. The Roman Plebeian Assembly was controlled by wealthy commoners who were clients of the nobles.

The lower-ranking ecclesiastics were, in turn, commoners, often drawn from the ranks of the very peasants they served from one of the small parish churches that dotted the landscape.

The Roman Empire was as rich, powerful and glorious as any in history up to that time, but it also represented oppression and imperialism for slaves, poor commoners and conquered peoples.

Gaius Marius was popular among Roman commoners because he won constant victories against enemies in both Africa and Germany, and because he distributed land and farms to his poor soldiers.

The idea was so appealing that not only knights but thousands of commoners responded, forming a "people's crusade" that marched towards Jerusalem, for the most part without weapons, armour or adequate supplies.

Despite the wide social gap between nobility and commoners, many nobles were perfectly happy to form working relationships with useful social inferiors, and in some cases real friendships emerged in the process.

Charlemagne organised his empire into counties, ruled by counts (appropriately enough), usually his military followers but sometimes commoners, all of whom were sent to govern lands to which they had no personal ties.

The important effect of Magna Carta was its principle: even the king had to respect the law. From then on English kings began to convene Parliament, a meeting of the Church, nobles and well-to-do commoners, in order to obtain authorisation and money for their wars.