THE GREAT REBELLION OF 1381

1381.online is the website of an innovative new research project set to produce the most comprehensive interpretation of the Great Rebellion to date. The revolt was one of the largest popular uprisings in medieval Europe and rocked the country in the summer of 1381. The Peasants' Revolt, as it became known, began as protests against a poll tax requiring all adults to pay twelve pence (the average daily unskilled wage was three pence). This was the third such tax in four years and was needed to finance wars against France. The epicentre of the protests lay in south Essex and north Kent. A contemporary report describes how 'A certain Thomas Baker of Fobbing (so-called because of his trade) took courage and began to exhort and ally himself with the men of his village. Then these men in turn leagued themselves with others and in turn they contacted their friends and relations so that the message passed from village to village'. In north Kent, disturbances began with an attack on Lesnes Abbey and riots in Dartford. Under their leader Wat Tyler, the rebels attacked unpopular officials and tax collectors in Maidstone, Rochester and Canterbury. The rebellion spread throughout East Anglia and the Home Counties. There were disturbances as far afield as Yorkshire and Somerset. As the rising spread, rebel demands widened. They asked that forced labour on the land be abolished and replaced by cash rents. They protested labour laws introduced after the Black Death to artificially keep down wages and many craftsmen, traders and townsfolk joined the rising. The rebels from Essex and Kent descended on London where they were joined by many Londoners. They burnt the palace of John of Gaunt, the unpopular uncle of King Richard II. They stormed the Tower of London and seized royal ministers who were immediately beheaded. King Richard gave the rebels letters granting them freedom, but at a meeting between the King and Wat Tyler, the rebel leader was killed. The revolt was swiftly suppressed and the royal letters of freedom withdrawn. REVOLUTIONARY RIVER In the middle ages, waterways and rivers helped people keep in touch and were an important means of communication when roads were difficult and dangerous. As protests against the poll tax grew in 1381, rebels moved backwards and forwards across the Thames estuary and co- ordinated their movement towards London. We know about the role of the estuary in the development of the revolt from information in confessions and prosecutions of rebels. Among the crowd THE GREAT REBELLION OF 1381 A new research project is seeking to deepen our understanding of the Peasants' Revolt 640 years ago RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: july/august 2021 :: RMTnews 26