More important still in the decline of aristocratic power was the growing might of the state, which over the course of the century abrogated noble rights of self-governance in feudal corporations, and replaced the ties of feudal dominance over the bodies of serfs and subjects with basic freedoms of movement, labour and inheritance, and equality before the law. Increased taxation and other burdens devised by the centralized apparatus of government further impinged on the autonomy of noble estate-owners.
