I have learnt that the main causes of the revolt were:
- The Black Death: This disease killed approximately 30% of England's population and therefore had an effect on the number of people who were available to work for landowners. Furthermore as less people were available to work for landowners, this meant that many peasants were expected to work harder and for longer hours which greatly angered them.
- 1351 Statute of labourers: a new law which stated that no peasants could be paid more than he received before the Black death outbreak
- Many peasants had to work for free on church land, sometimes up to two days a week and thus as a consequence they were unable to work on their own land which made it difficult for them to grow enough food for their families.
- Introduction of Poll Tax which was introduced to cover the costs of Hundred Years' War with France (This particularly angered the peasants as they could barely afford to feed themselves and their family without having to pay a tax for things which didn't affect them).
- King Richard II was only 10 when he came to power and therefore the true power of the country lay in the hands of the barons such as John of Gaunt, Simon Sudbury (Archbishop of Canterbury) and Sir Robert Hales. However many peasants saw them as corrupt officials, abusing the weaknesses of the king.
- Living conditions of Peasants: Since the Norman Conquest, the Feudal System had resulted in a poor quality of life for peasants. Churches owned nearly 60% of land in England; therefore as a peasant you were more than likely to have an abbot or a bishop as your lord who were often harsh and often reufsed to pay wages or replace workers.
- Hundred Years' War
- Other rebellions in other countries especially the 'Jacquerie' in France
The events of the revolt:
In order to get round paying the poll tax, many people bribed tax collectors to falsify tax records so that they didn't have to pay for all of the people who lived in their households. As a result the amount of money that was collected from people throughout the country was barely two thirds of what the government expected it to be. Therefore in the Spring of 1381, the people were taxed again and Simon Sudbury sent in tax collectors to enforce payment.
The revolt first began in Fobbing, Essex on 3oth May 1381 when Thomas Brampton ( a tax collector) arrived to collect taxes from Fobbing, Stanford and Corningham. The people there threw him out of the village refusing to pay a second tax or pay for people who had not paid correctly the first time. As a consequence, Sir Robert Belknap (a chief justice) was sent to calm the situation, however he too faced a similar fate and as a result peasants in Essex banded together and turned on landowners and burnt down manor houses and destroyed records of taxes, labour duties and debts.
By 7th June, the rebellion had quickly spread to Kent where peasants besieged Maidstone Castle and on 10th June, Kent rebels march on Canterbury and capture the city and on finding the Archbishop away, the rebels appoint a humble monk as a new Archbishop and hold a service in the Cathedral where they promise to kill all 'traitors' who are caught.
By 12th June, 60,000 peasant rebels are located in London and camp on either of the River Thames (Essex Peasants at Mile End and Knet Peasants at Blackheath). The rebels also ask to meet the king and it is agreed that they will meet him that afternoon at Rotherhithe. However his advisors will not let him land after they see the huge crowds of the peasants waiting to speak to him, so Richard returns to the Tower of the London leaving the peasants anger and frustrated. As a consequence of the 12th June events, Peasants cause havoc: Fleet prison is broken open, may lawyers are killed in the temple and foreign merchants are massacred and a group of peasants march west to Savoy Palace (John of Gaunt's house) and ransack it before setting it on fire.
On 14th June, Wat Tyler (the leader of the peasants revolt) meets the King at Mile End and puts forward the following demands:
- Land rents be reduced to reasonable levels
- Poll tax is abolished
- Free Pardon for all rebels
- Charters would be given to peasants laying down a number of rights and privileges
- All 'traitors' were to be put to death
The king agrees to all of these demands. However whilst this meeting is being held at Mile End, a number of peasants raid the Tower of London and find and kill Simon Sudbury (Archbishop of Canterbury), Sir Robert Hailes (King's Treasurer) and John Legge (the creator of the poll tax).
On 15th June, Wat meets the king once again at Smithfield and puts forward more demands:
- There was to be a total abolishment of all rank and status under the king
- The church hierarchy was also to be abolished, leaving only one bishop in England
- Church lands were to be divided up among the people
- He wanted to be the commander of the army
By making these demands more extreme, Wat believed that he could provoke the king into a refusal and hence give him an excuse for seizing the king. However the king suprised Wat by agreeing to all of his demands. Following the king agreeing to his demands, Wat in an attempt to provoke trouble, it is rumoured spits in front of the king and swills a beer before climbing back on his horse. At this point he was either loudly insulted by one of the king's retinue or picked the quarrel himself. Tyler drew his dagger to attack one of Richard's servants but William Walworth (the Mayor of London) intervened by arresting Wat. Wat retaliated by trying to stab Walworth in the stomach but instead he was met with the mayor's armour and in return Walworth drew his cutlass and dealt Wat a pair of nasty head wounds. A member of the King's followers then killed Wat with his sword. In order to avoid chaos the King order that the rebels followed him and leave the city.
Results of the revolt:
The Great revolt was a failure for the rebels however it did succeed in showing the nobles that the peasants were dissatsified and that they were capable of wreaking havoc.
King Richard II sent his army out with the instructions to capture the ringleaders and many leaders of the rebellion. It is estimated that approximately 7000 common people were executed for their involvement in the revolt before a general pardon was finally declared in November 1381.
On 2nd July, Parliament decreed that the promises that the king had given were made 'under duress and without consent of the government' and hence the charters of freedom were revoked. Furthermore the rebels did not achieve their immediate aims: the Feudal System remained, the Hundred Years' War continued and the church remained unchanged.
However even though, the peasants didn't realise it at the time changes were slowly taking place which would change their position(s) in society: Lords realised that it was was easier for them to pay labourers to work on their land than to make unwilling tenants do work service.
In terms of teaching this topic to students:
I would give them the list of causes of the revolt and ask them to group them into short term and long term causes. I would then ask them to rank them in order of importance i.e. which causes needed to happen for the revolt to take place.
I would also show them some of the sources written and drawn on the revolt and ask them to see what they can learn from them, if the sources differ on their events of the revolt and why they think this is. Some of the sources I could use are:
http://www.fantompowa.net/Flame/wat_tyler_1381.html (I wouldn't use all of these but they help to give a view of different people who were involved in the revolt).
I could also use some of the chronicles to give their views on the events of the rebellion: http://webpub.allegheny.edu/group/mandr/1381/anonimalle.pdf or sources from the Frossiart's chronicles (chapter 3 on Wat's rebellion): http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/froissart-full.html (Again I would only use small parts of the sources)
Images of revolt:
http://www.anselm.edu/academic/history/graphics/Peasants%20Revolt%201381.jpg, http://www.britannia.com/history/articles/images/peasants.jpg,
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/Richard_II_meets_rebels.jpg,
http://www.finestprospect.org.uk/Mediaeval/Poll%20tax.jpg, http://www.duhaime.org/Portals/duhaime/images/Wat_Tyler.jpg
Further tasks could include: asking them to think why they think the rebels failed to win the revolt, asking them to write a description of how they saw the event (either from the peasants side or from the kings side) and asking them to find the link between the black death and the peasants revolt.
As an end task I could arrange the class into groups or work together as a full class (depending on the size of the class) and ask them to re-arrange into order the events of the revolt along with the dates to re-cap on the lesson.
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