Nicholas Carpenter
ERH 205-WX – The Peasants’ Revolt
Help Received: See works cited, in-text citations added Feb 25th
Word Count: 428
The Peasants’ Revolt began on June 10, 1381. Rebels attacked Canterbury and Essex and beheaded their opposition, and rioters in London burned John of Gaunt’s palace. On June 13 an army of rebels, reportedly 60,000 in number, attacked London and destroyed many upper-class people’s homes and killed lawyers and clerks (Companion 24).
The environment for the Peasants’ Revolt was set in lower class people’s long-standing dissatisfaction with the management of their country. After the Plague of 1348 destroyed Europe and England’s population, labor was in short supply but high demand. Laborers demanded higher wages for their goods and services. The government accused the class of laborers of greed and decided to fix the prices for goods and services; these laws were unenforceable (today we know this phenomenon to be a result of the economic law of supply and demand). Furthermore, the government passed new laws regarding the types of clothing the lower classes of citizens were allowed to wear. The common citizens were gaining enough wealth to wear the same clothing as the aristocracy, which was unnerving to aristocrats who feared for their feudal order (Companion 22-23).
The immediate cause of the Peasants’ Revolt was new poll taxes. At the time, England and France were at war, and as a result England was in need of additional revenues. The poll tax disproportionately affected poorer citizens, as the tax was equivalent to 1-2 days of pay for skilled labor and much more for unskilled labor. When the government attempted to enforce the poll tax, the people fought back (Companion 24).
The rebels were led by a man named Wat Tyler. He struck a deal with King Richard and apparently secured his people’s freedom. However, the rebels executed a number of significant people such as the Archbishop of Canterbury and allowed widespread violence to take place in London. Hundreds of “alien” residents were murdered. As such, the rebels likely lost any sympathy they had gained among the larger population. King Richard called a meeting with Wat Tyler, where Tyler was killed and the revolt disbanded from a lack of leadership. King Richard then stated that the peasants would remain peasants, but now in much worse conditions (Companion 25-26).
Though the revolt died out and the peasants did not achieve their goals, there were some long-term results. The aristocracy in England was much more inclined to investigate the attitudes of the lower classes. The upper classes did not change their treatment of the lower classes, but they did make more effort to maintain their image around the lower classes (Companion 26).
Works Cited
A Companion to Chaucer and his Contemporaries: Texts and Contexts. Edited by Laurel Amtower and Jacqueline Vanhoutte. Broadview Press. Ontario, Canada, 2009.