The Peasants’ Revolt

Short History Of...

This episode chronicles the 1381 Peasants' Revolt in England, tracing its trajectory from local tax protests in Essex to a massive uprising

Key takeaways

The Black Death caused a labor shortage that allowed survivors to demand higher wages and greater independence.
The Statute of Labourers (1351) was a failed attempt by the elite to freeze wages and restrict movement.

Main topics

The Peasants' Revolt of 1308
Economic impact of the Black Death

Notable quotes

they cannot afford to pay another tax

Conclusion

While the revolt failed to achieve its immediate political goals, it f

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:02) It is May 30, 1381. Thomas Baker, a smallholder of some local standing, approaches the marketplace in Brentwood, a town east of London and the county of Essex. He has walked for four hours to join hundreds of villagers who have been summoned to a meeting on this damp day. Alongside neighbors from his village of Fobbing, Baker greets acquaintances from nearby Coringham and Stanford-le-Hope. There are strangers from further afield too, their boots covered in the same Essex mud. And they are all equally angry about rumors that their tax bill is about to rise again. Now, with the guard standing to attention, one of the officials, John Bampton, gets to his feet. A wealthy landowner, he is also a justice who often oversees disputes. But the news that he is here today in his role as a royal tax commissioner is received with jeers. The guards rattle their weapons, and the crowd mostly settles, but heckles and sardonic laughter continue to sound from the back. Ignoring it, Bampton makes his announcement. The payment of the poll tax, set at the amount of 12 pence per person, is due immediately. People react in dismay. There are groans, shouts of indignation. One woman throws a vegetable at the awning, but it lands wetly in the mud. Amid the noise, Thomas Baker raises his hand. As calmly as he can, he says Speaker 1 (1:42) they cannot afford to pay another tax. Speaker 2 (1:45) There are cries of agreement from those around him. But then the guards march forwards to seize him. As he is led away, Brampton announces that anyone refusing to pay will be arrested. The crowd grows restive. One elderly woman at the back lifts her skirt as if to flash her backside. People laugh, but they know the reference is serious. There have been tales from the neighboring county of Kent that a tax inspector has been insisting on feeling under the skirts of young women, apparently to check if they are old enough to pay their taxes. At least, that was his excuse. His assaults have caused outrage and deepened the belief that these tax men are not to be trusted. Speaker 2 (2:33) As Bampton tries to restore order, Thomas Baker breaks free from the guard. His fellow villagers surge forwards and storm the shelter. The guards are outnumbered. As fighting breaks out, Bampton barely manages to gather his vital tax scrolls before fleeing to his horse and riding away. Speaker 2 (2:54) But though the villagers win the skirmish and avoid paying the tax, for now, a battle is coming. They must find a way to fight back on a larger scale. To stage a rebellion the like of which has never been seen in England. Speaker 2 (3:17) The so-called Peasants' Revolt of 1381 was the first mass popular uprising in England. A true people's revolution, it involved not just peasants but also tradesmen, merchants, artisans, priests, village leaders, and emerging middle class from the countryside. Their demands were radical. An overhaul of a centuries-old system of power held by aristocrats and the church, and the end of the exploitation of the masses by the elites. By the time it was over, a small, disparate band of disillusioned common people had swollen into an army of tens of thousands, forcing the king himself to listen. But how did a village ruckus explode into a national crisis? Who were the rebels willing to die for a cause? And who clung on to power after London fell into anarchy? I'm John Hopkins. From the Noiser Podcast Network, this is a short history of the Peasants' Revolt. Speaker 2 (4:34) In the three centuries since the Norman conquest of 1066, the English have been living under a strict feudal system. Speaker 2 (4:44) The land is owned by a 1 % elite, the king, the nobles and gentry, and the church. That land is worked by around 90 % of the population, either tenants who pay rent for farms or unpaid serfs, their status only differing from that of slaves by virtue of their being bought and sold with the land, and not individually. Speaker 2 (5:09) The remaining minority are those who do not work in agriculture. Merchants, tradespeople, artisans, lower-level clergy. By the 14th century, with the growth of towns and cities, they form an increasingly influential middle class. For the vast majority, life is hard. Most people cannot look for work without the permission of the lord of their manor. And if you're born poor, there is little chance of escape from the grind. but a brutal catalyst is about to spark change. Juliet Barker is a medieval historian and author of the book England Arise. Speaker 4 (5:51) There were lots and lots of people who were living on manors where they were obliged to perform services in order to hold their land. They're what we would now call serfs, but were known as villains, and the tenure was known as villainage. And these people weren't allowed to leave their manor. They couldn't do all sorts of things. So their lives were very restricted to what the lord of the manor wanted them to do. Life was defined by... being subject to somebody else. And then when the great plague came along, the Boab Death, it completely changed everything. At least half the population was wiped out. And it came in 1348, but it also recurred several times after that. 50 % of people died on certain matters, or 78 % on one of the Durham Priory matters. So you left there with landlords who have lots of land, but nobody to look after it. And for the people who were still alive, it provided an opportunity to change things. Speaker 2 (7:00) It is a question of supply and demand. With a shortage of rural labor due to the epidemic, those who remain can command a better income for their services. Laborers, such as plowmen, can double or triple their pay. Some people acquire property or land, too, creating a new class of independent farmer known as yeoman. Speaker 2 (7:26) The villains, who never previously received wages but instead labored for basic sustenance and a roof over their heads, now get paid in coin. Better-off working people are able to send their children to school. Soon, many more people can read and write, something that not so long ago was limited to few beyond the clergy and aristocracy. Literacy expands as secular schools open up, organized by trade and merchant guilds. A cash economy means people can also purchase healthier food, such as meat and eggs from the market, rather than surviving on cheap rye cakes handed out by their masters. Some villains, whose fate has always been tied to the land, now begin to leave and seek a better job. People have a freedom that has not existed in living memory. Speaker 4 (8:16) I don't think it's a question of feeling that it's a need to survive anymore because you've got a surplus. The people who are still left have got more than enough land or whatever to cultivate to feed their families. Even just taking on other land and using the produce and being able to sell it, take it to the local markets. And I think we forget how intertwined all these agrarians are. economy was with the local markets and particularly get that in East Anglia but more especially in Essex and also in Kent you've got lots and lots of people who are starting to send their children out as apprentices in the towns to learn trades and become servants where they get a cash economy and then themselves they're building up land holdings and they're building up a much greater independence from the old regime, as it were. Speaker 2 (9:18) The old regime, however, is far from happy about this new system and wants its power back. A law is passed in 1351 called the Statute of Labourers, which aims to restore the old way of life, the hierarchy of feudalism. Speaker 2 (9:36) The statute enforces a national wage freeze. A haymaker's earnings are capped at one penny a day, a carpenter at threepence. A stonemason can make a daily maximum of fourpence. In addition, the new law decrees that every able-bodied man and woman under 60 who does not own land must accept any job offered to them. It also outlaws freedom of movement, reinstating the old system of absolute submission to one's lord. Even acts of charity are banned for people who are considered able to work, forcing as many as possible to labor rather than receive alms. Speaker 2 (10:16) The new pay scale is a blunt instrument. It is applied as a flat rate across the country and doesn't account for any of the regional differences of potential income. For example, a fertile farm in Essex with access to the thriving markets of London can produce a better yield and turn a greater profit than, say, a manor in the northern county of Cumberland that has been ravaged by Scottish raiders damaging its productivity. In the north, the statute becomes unenforceable. Even lords break the law in order to secure working hands during harvest time. Speaker 2 (10:52) By the late 14th century, the statute has caused resentment among farm workers, but also the emerging middle class of country folk who depend on the agrarian economy. In St. Albans, a town northwest of London, a protest emerges when people are forced to pay to use the local abbey's mill to grind their corn into flour, rather than make use of their own, freely available hand mills. Speaker 4 (11:16) One of the things that the Abbey at St. Albans did was to literally seize all the handbills in the town. And they took them and made them into a pavement in the Abbey so that they could walk on them all the time. It was very unpleasant. And really intelligent, educated, literate people didn't see why they should be treated like this. And what they wanted was the restoration of the liberties that they started to enjoy after the Black Death. Speaker 2 (11:51) At the same time, England is at war against the French. In fact, it has been at war against the French for almost half a century. The conflict was started by a king who staked a claim to the French throne. But though he is now dead and gone, his war continues. And it's bloody, labor-intensive, and costly. Warfare is usually funded by aristocrats from the profits of their manners, but due to the crisis, that income has waned. The treasury now turns instead to direct taxation, a so-called poll tax. The word poll is an archaic English word for head, so it means the same amount must be paid per capita, from the poorest serf to the richest baron. For the wealthy, it's a drop in the ocean. For the impoverished, It amounts to a week's worth of food. But despite their hard-earned contributions to the war effort, the people can see that England is on the back foot. What's more, the war is no longer happening far away on the continent, but knocking at their back door. The French naval forces have been on the counterattack, with invasion forces landing on the south coast of Kent and sailing as far as East Anglia, from where they attack merchant ships off the coast of Essex and Suffolk. And, just like the French, the taxes keep coming. Speaker 3 (13:19) I'm Julie Andrews, and it is my great pleasure to return to Jane Austen Stories. This time, I'll be reading another beloved classic, Emma. Join me as we step into the village of Highbury, home to the handsome and clever Emma Woodhouse. But as new visitors arrive and quiet mysteries unfold, what will our strong-willed heroine learn? both of the secrets of others and of her own heart's desires. Listen to Jane Austen Stories now wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 2 (14:01) This September on the Noiser Podcast Network. On Jane Austen Stories, Dame Julie Andrews continues to bring Austen's beloved classic,