4 January: The Peasants Revolt

This date in 1341 saw the birth of Wat Tyler, leader of the peasants revolt which took place in 1381. 10 things you might not know about Tyler and the Peasants’ Revolt.

1. Nobody knows for sure exactly when or where Wat Tyler was born. 1341 is generally accepted as his year of birth, but there are sources which say he was born in 1320. As to where he came from, various sources claim either Dartford, Deptford, Maidstone or Colchester.
2. Historians aren’t even sure about his name. His first name was presumably Wat, which may have been short for Walter, but his original surname isn’t known – the name Tyler came from the fact that he was a tiler by occupation.
3. Why Tyler got involved and became the leader isn’t known, either, but a 16^th century source speaks of a man called John Tyler, who was inflamed with rage when a poll tax collector pulled up his daughter’s dress to see if she’d reached puberty or not. This Tyler killed the tax collector and kicked off the riot. Perhaps Wat Tyler’s actual name was John; or perhaps John was his brother. Who knows? But by June 1381, when groups of rebels from across the country began their assault on London, Wat Tyler had emerged as a leader of the Kentish forces.
4. Why did the rebellion happen? People had been becoming increasingly angry about the system of serfdom, in which workers were under the strict control of feudal lords and had no freedom. They couldn’t move to a different area in search of better pay. In some cases they even had to marry who their lord told them to. There was also a pandemic, in this case the Black Death, which had led to a shortage of workers. Under the laws of supply and demand this should have meant wages would go up, but Parliament passed the Statute of Labourers in 1351, which set a maximum wage and workers could be punished with prison if they demanded any more. A radical priest called John Ball had been preaching that all men should be free and equal. So trouble had been brewing for some time.
5. The last straw was a poll tax. In May 1381 a new tax was introduced, which demanded that every adult in the land paid a tax of four pence, regardless of how much money they had, to fund a war in France which wasn’t going well. People in Essex refused to pay, so an MP and Justice of the Peace called John Bampton showed up in a village called Fobbing to investigate why the tax hadn’t been paid. The residents claimed they’d already paid and tried to send him away but he and his men got heavy handed and a riot broke out. Some say this incident was the origin of the expression “fobbing off” meaning to attempt to satisfy someone with a lie or inferior quality solution. However, the verb “fob” didn’t come into use until the 16^th century.
6. Unrest spread throughout the country after that, culminating in a march on London from Canterbury, led by Wat Tyler. On 13 June, the rebels reached the capital and crossed London Bridge, attacking and killing people, destroying legal records and setting prisoners free. The king, Richard II, who was just 14 at the time, agreed to meet the rebels and made some promises to them. Some rebels were satisfied with that and went home but others, including Tyler, were still unhappy and continued their attacks. Richard and his government were virtually besieged in the Tower of London, so Richard went out to meet the rebels again and negotiate some more, in Mile End, east London. While Richard was at Mile End, the Tower was taken by the rebels.
7. The following day, Richard and Tyler met at Smithfield. Their meeting seemed to be going well and Richard seemed perfectly willing to meet as many of Tyler’s demands as he reasonably could. Somewhere along the line, though, the wheels came off and ended with Tyler asking for a flagon of Water, taking a mouthful and spitting it at Richard. The king’s servant, Sir John Newton called Tyler "the greatest thief and robber in all Kent". Tyler attacked Newton, but the Lord Mayor of London, William Walworth, stepped in and arrested Tyler, who attempted to stab the mayor, who was saved by his armour. Walworth responded by slashing Tyler across the neck and head with his sword, and another of the king's servants, possibly Ralph de Standish, also joined in the attack on Tyler. Tyler started to ride away but was badly wounded and fell off his Horse. He was taken to hospital but was tracked down by the mayor, brought back to Smithfield and publicly beheaded. Richard II revoked all the concessions he had made to the rebels and many were hunted down and executed.
8. It wasn’t just the peasants who were revolting. Poor people in the cities and towns were on board, too. There were members of the aristocracy who agreed with the peasants and took an active part in the uprising. Sir Roger Bacon, a knight from the manor of Baconsthorpe and Thomas Gyssing, son of Sir Thomas, who had served as MP for Norfolk in 1380 were just two of them. For this reason, historians argue that “The Peasants’ Revolt” is actually a misnomer and it should be called ‘The Great Revolt’ or the 'English Rising'.
9. Some conspiracy theorists believe that Tyler wasn’t the leader of the revolt at all but it was actually organised by a secret, occult organisation called "the Great Society", said to be an offshoot of the order of the Knights Templar, or the Freemasons. They argue that the whole thing was too well co-ordinated and spread country-wide rather quickly given that the people back then didn’t have mobile phones or Twitter.
10. While it seemed that the uprising had failed, over time the serf system did decline, although possibly for economic reasons rather than as a result of the protest. Workers gained more freedom and basic rights in the long term. Governments and rich people were now a little more cautious about taking advantage of the poor. No government collected a Poll Tax again until 1990, and that one caused unrest as well. The events were also said to have had a more personal effect on the 14 year old king, Richard II, making him proud and over-confident, which ultimately led to his downfall in 1399.