A great event in the fourteenth century was the illness known as the Black Death. Between 1348 and 1350, about thirty percent of the people in England died. This had several results. One was that many churchmen, monks, and school teachers were replaced by less educated men, who spoke only English. In 1362, English was used for the first time at the opening of Parliament. Also, the position of the ordinary people changed. Because there were fewer of them, they felt more independent. Some of them were able to rent more land, and others demanded higher wages for their work. As they became more important, the social importance of their language, English, grew.