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The peasant’s revolt

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Introduction• Medieval England experienced few revolts

but the most serious was known as the ‘Peasants’ Revolt’ which took place in June 1381

• As we shall see, it wasn’t the Peasant that revolted, but the yeomen farmers

• These were small land owners who were much better off as a result of surviving the Black Death, and were concerned that the King and the barons were trying to turn the clock back

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Why were there few revolts?• A violent system of punishments for

offenders was usually enough to put off peasants from causing trouble.

• Most areas in England also had castles in which soldiers were garrisoned.

• These were usually enough to guarantee reasonable behaviour among medieval peasants.

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Why did they revolt?• After the Black Death, many manors were left

short of workers. • To encourage those who had survived to stay

on their manor, many lords had given the peasants on their estates their freedom and paid them to work on their land.

• Now, nearly 35 years after the Black Death, many peasants feared that the lords would take back these privileges and they were prepared to fight for them

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The Lords• Peasants want freedom

from their Lord• They wanted to rent

land from him and be paid to work on the Lords Land

• They did not want to be part of the feudal system any more

• The Lords did not like this and fought to stop it

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The Church• The Church owned a

lot of land and did not want peasants to have their freedom

• Peasants began to criticise the church for having too much money

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Radical Priests• Some people, such

as John Ball, a priest in Kent, encouraged the peasants to rebel

• He told them that they were being unfairly treated.

• They should be treated equally with everyone else

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France• Long wars against

France had been going on for 50 years

• This always meant suffering for the peasants

• They had to pay taxes they could not afford to fund the war

• This made them very angry

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The Poll tax• In 1377, Edward III levied a

new tax.• Everyone over 14 had to pay

4d (approx 1½p) whether they were rich or poor

• This was very unpopular as this was a lot of money for the poor

• A further tax, now called the poll tax, was levied by Richard 11 in 1380.

• This time 3 groats (12d or 5p) was to be paid by everyone over 15

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What happened then• The peasants could not

afford their taxes, so they refused

• Villagers chased away the tax collectors.

• The king sent soldiers to collect the taxes instead

• Whole villages got together and threw the soldiers out

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The Statute of Labourers 1351• ….. said that no-one could earn or

be paid more than before the Black Death.

• Demanding more money could lead to being branded with a red hot poker

• Paying more led to heavy fines and many land owners were so desperate, that they took no notice.

• And many peasants became yeomen farmers, renting land and working for the Barons for wages

• They were afraid that these new rights would be taken away

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The Young King• In 1377, Richard II,

aged 10, became king

• He could not run the country without help

• The peasants thought that his advisors were making things worse for them

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Some of the causes you have read about had existed for years. We call these long-term causes. Others happened immediately before the revolt. We call these short-term causes

Long term

Short term

Years of unaffordable taxes

Wars against France

The Barons

The impact of the Black Death

The radical priests

The young king’s advisors

The Church

The Poll Tax of 1380

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Some of the causes you have read about had existed for years. We call these long-term causes. Others happened immediately before the revolt. We call these short-term causes

Long term

Short term

Years of unaffordable taxes Wars against France The Barons The impact of the Black Death The radical priests The young king’s advisors The Church The Poll Tax of 1380

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What is bias?• Why might be the purpose of a biased

report?• What are the ways a record of an event could

be biased? What tricks might you play to paint the picture you want people to see?

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Had there been newspapers this is one way it might have been recorded

If this was real, what

type of source would this be?

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And here is another

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What happened afterwards• The king went back

on his promise.• He pardoned many

of the people who took part

• But the ring leaders were all put on trial

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And …

• All the rebels were hanged• Wat Tyler’s head was cut off• It was put on a pole on London Bridge as a

warning to others

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But also …• Over the next few years

there was a shortage of workers

• So parliament stopped keeping the wages low

• Peasants could earn a lot more

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And finally the poll tax was ended

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Also• Peasants became free

of the feudal system• They could work for

wages and own their own land

• Fifty years after the revolt, all villeins became freemen

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Homework• This is our last time looking at mediaeval history – for a

while anyway.• Next week we are going to start on a longitudinal topic.• This means look at one idea from as far back as we can

go and then keep looking at that idea right through to much more modern times.

• The idea we are going to follow is weapons and warfare. What was the first weapon that we know about? How long ago was it used? What was it used for?

• Your homework is to collect 3 pictures of historical weapons or battle machines – before the 15th century.

• If you have powerpoint use that – picture on half a slide and with its name, when it was used etc on the other half of the slide.