The Peasants' Revolt of 1381

Popular revolts happened during the Middle Ages, but they were rare.  Most people accepted their lot in life, as hard as it was.  The King and God were far away and most people were concerned with feeding themselves and finding enough money to pay various taxes to have the time or inclination to revolt.  That all changed in the wake of the Black Death, 1348-49.  Whole villages were either wiped out or seriously decimated by the disease.  Estates were abandoned or undermanned.  Laborers walked off the land and made their way to the cities.  Landlords were forced to increase rents and land space to keep the land under cultivation.  The administration of Edward III issued several ordinances to keep laborers on the land and to return errant peasants who'd strayed into towns looking for work.  The King and the landlords increased taxes, both to meet revenue for the ongoing Hundred Years War and to keep people's heads down.

The repressive measures ultimately backfired.  In addition to the newfound freedoms of the labor market, many English people had discovered popular religion, including the teachings of John Wycliffe and later John Ball.  John Wycliffe had printed the first Bible in English.  Though many people couldn't read, there were enough who could, and could read to others.  Wycliffe's followers soon went from reading the Bible to discussing it and spreading their views.  Even after the English government condemned Wycliffe as a heretic and began confiscating copies of his Bible, the common people had their first tastes of freedom and popular action.  They wouldn't soon forget it.  On May 31, 1381, a local official tried to collect the royal poll tax in Brentwood, Essex.  A protest turned into a riot, and into an armed march, which gathered steam as it headed toward London, ultimately led by Ball and Wat Tyler. 

Tyler and Ball were met on Blackheath by representatives of King Richard II's government.  Negotiations stalemated and things turned ugly.  On June 13, 1381, the Kentish contingent wreaked havoc.  They broke open jails, destroyed John of Gaunt's sumptuous palace of Savoy House, set fire to the law college at the Temple, and killed any government representative they could find.  Finally, Richard himself met them at Mile End.  Despite his attempts at gaining control of the rebellion by putting himself at their head, more violence broke out.  Some of the rebels went to the Tower of London and killed the Lord Chancellor and Lord High Treasurer.  Richard took his Plantagenet courage in hand and went to Smithfield in an attempt to negotiate with the rebels further.  Armed conflict erupted and Tyler was killed, enraging his followers.  Richard calmed things down long enough for the Lord Mayor of London to rouse the city militia. 

The city militia disbursed the mob, but trouble had spread to other towns and counties were mobs were forming and heading toward London as fast as they could walk.  Cambridge University was attacked and buildings burned.  Hugh le Despenser, one of the King's favorites, marshalled an army and defeated the rebels at the Battle of North Walsham on June 25-26, 1381, but the conflagration had spread.  Richard had to mobilize 4000 soldiers and put down the revolt piecemeal, disbursing mobs and rounding up and executing their leaders.  The Revolt did have one effect, Parliament was deterred for several sessions from raising further money for the war effort.  But the general impact wouldn't last for very long.  It was the barons and members of the royal family who deposed Richard in 1400, not the common people.  The War ground on and taxes were collected.  Not until the time of the Reformation in the 16th century would England have a Bible in the vernacular and talk of religion would turn to current events, and then to grassroots political action.