And the oldest one was the most crucial to their efforts yielding fruits. Just like in business today we see that the 40-60 bracket is where the best leadership comes from.

He most certainly helped give their efforts the right guard rails in order to succeed, as far as it went.

The King was never gonna have much chance against a well organised insurrection, being offshore, and the taxation irking the plebs so much.

But it should also be added that before many of these guys died the process of decline had already fully started. Before even the start of the 19th century was war profiteering and favours for mates.