The Peasants´ Revolt

The peasants who survived the Black Death asked for higher wages. Lords of the manor had to pay, or leave their land untilled. For a while the peasants were on top. Then the lords hit back. They tried to make the peasants work two or three days a week for them, without wages, as in the past. Then parliament passed a law which banned high wages for peasants.

The peasants did not like any of this. Nor did they like the poll tax which was charged in 1380 to help pay for a war with France. Complaints led to revolt. Angry peasants attacked manor houses and made bonfires with the lords' record books.

Rebels from Essex and Kent reached London in June 1381. They pulled down and burned the houses of the great lords and rich merchants. They killed foreign tradesmen. They even cut off the head of the Archbishop of Canterbury, whom they blamed for the new tax.

King Richard II, who was only fourteen years old, met the rebels at Smithfield, on the edge of London. A fight broke out there between the mayor of London and Wat Tyler, the peasants' leader. The mayor drew his sword and cut Tyler down. The peasants might have killed the mayor and the king in revenge. Richard kept cool. He faced the rebels, told them he would see to their complaints, and asked them to go home.

The king broke his promise. As soon as the danger was over, his ministers sent soldiers to deal with the rebels. They put the leaders to death. They burned down the villages where the peasants had revolted. But it was not all loss – the hated poll tax was not charged again.

Walter Robson: Medieval Britain; Oxford University Press, 1991/2000, page 56 f.