 Rural communities , particularly in the south @-@ east , were unhappy with the operation of serfdom and the use of the local manorial courts to exact traditional fines and levies , not least because the same landowners who ran these courts also often acted as enforcers of the unpopular labour laws or as royal judges . Many of the village elites refused to take up positions in local government and began to frustrate the operation of the courts . Animals seized by the courts began to be retaken by their owners , and legal officials were assaulted . Some started to advocate the creation of independent village communities , respecting traditional laws but separate from the hated legal system centred in London . As the historian Miri Rubin describes , for many , " the problem was not the country 's laws , but those charged with applying and safeguarding them " . 
