Peasants' Revolt

1381

In the reign of Richard II the general distress among the poor in England, following an epidemic of the Black Death, and discontent at the enactment of a statute of labourers which attempted to prevent the peasantry taking advantage of the scarcity of labour resulting from the plague, came to a crisis when the poll tax was enforced in 1379. Riots soon followed in several parts of England, the most serious of which involved the men of Kent and Essex. There, rebels, led by Wat Tyler, seized Rochester Castle and marched to Maidstone. Canterbury was seized and sacked; they then marched to London. John Ball, 'the mad priest of Kent' joined them having been liberated from the Archbishop's prison. They continued burning and plundering, and many beautiful buildings were burnt and sacked, among them John of Gaunt's palace of the Savoy. On reaching London they seized the prisons of Newgate and Fleet. London was the scene of pillage and riot.

The boy king rode out to confer with Tyler but with little effect. The mob then seized the Tower and murdered Archbishop Sudbury and Sir Robert Hales. Richard again went to make peace at Smithfield; Sir William Walworth, Lord Mayor of London, who rode with the King, stabbed Tyler and, in a celebrated scene, the King saved an ugly situation by offering himself as the rebels' leader. The rebels then dispersed, vainly believing in Richard's promise to accede to their demands. In other parts of the country, including Norfolk, where the Bishop of Norwich vigorously crushed the rebels, the disturbances were much more easily suppressed and although the ringleaders were severely punished, there was little of the barbarous retribution which typically followed such a revolt.

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