Part 1 : the Peasants' Revolt

Question 1

what were the causes of the peasants revolt in the fourteenth century?

Answer 1

• economic
• political
• religious
• social

Question 2

when did the plague arrive in england?

Answer 2

• in 1348

Question 3

what did the black death result in?

Answer 3

• killed most of the peasant workforce, which meant that fields of crops were left to rot and villages were abandoned as there were fewer workers so the peasants could demand higher wages

Question 4

what did king richard III raise to fund his campaigns?

Answer 4

• taxes to fund his campaigns against the french in the Hundred Years War - a poll tax

Question 5

how much was poll tax by 1380?

Answer 5

• everyone over the age of 15 had to pay four groats per year to the king ; this was a massive increase from the one groat they had previously paid

Question 6

what did local lords and the king worry about in the fourteenth century?

Answer 6

• worried that the peasants were becoming too powerful and that the feudal system would break down

Question 7

what was passed in 1351?

Answer 7

• the statute of labourers

Question 8

what was the significance of the statute of labourers?

Answer 8

• restricted the movement and wages of the peasants as they were forced to return and work for their lord again

Question 9

why did the peasants want reform?

Answer 9

• to reduce the influence of landowners

Question 10

what did priests begin to preach in the 14th century?

Answer 10

• that the church was exploiting the peasants by making people pay pardons for their sins

Question 11

john ball stated that God had created everyone equally…

Answer 11

….and there should be no rich or poor

Question 12

what happened to john ball?

Answer 12

he was arrested

Question 13

how did the black death plague affect socially?

Answer 13

• it spread across the country
• killed a third of the population, mostly poor people
• many peasants started to move around from village to village looking for the best paid work
• between 1377 and 1379, 70% of the people brought before the justice of the peace were accused of breaking the statute of labourers
• peasants returning from the Hundred Years War forced to go back tot heir old lives and pay higher taxes

Question 14

the peasants’ demands: ‘all villeins…

Answer 14

..to be made freemen’

Question 15

the peasants’ demands: ‘full change…

Answer 15

…to the system of law’

Question 16

the peasants’ demands: ‘church lands…

Answer 16

…to be given to the people’

Question 17

the peasants’ demands: ‘all bishops except…

Answer 17

…one to be removed’

Question 18

30th may 1381

Answer 18

• peasants refuse to pay poll tax and threaten to kill local tax collector

Question 19

2nd june 1381

Answer 19

• chief justice comes to collect poll tax and is also threatened
• peasants find tax collector’s clerks and behead them and also set fire to the houses of poll tax supporters

Question 20

7th june 1381

Answer 20

• peasants march to maidstone and make wat tyler their leader
• they free john ball
• storm rochester castle and burn tax records

Question 21

12th june 1381

Answer 21

• peasants reach london’s city walls and richard II sails to meet them, but the crowd is too rowdy

Question 22

13th june 1381

Answer 22

• peasants storm the city walls, burn palaces and kill supporters of the king
• some peasants are peaceful as wat tyler had ordered

Question 23

14th june 1381

Answer 23

• wat tyler meets the king and outlines the peasants’ demands
• the king agrees and asks the peasants to go home
• while this is happening, another group of peasants kills the archbishop of canterbury

Question 24

15th june 1381

Answer 24

• the king meets the peasants again and agrees to their demands, but one of his men kills wat tyler
• peasants leave london and the revolt is over

Question 25

how did richard go back on his word?

Answer 25

- he said he had been forced to agree to the demands so it did not count - the rebel leaders were all rounded up and hanged, and john ball's and wat tyler's heads were stuck on spikes on london bridge

Question 26

what was the impact of the peasants' revolt on poll tax?

Answer 26

- king richard did stop the poll tax after the revolt - wasn't repeated until 1989 in scotland and 1990 in england and wales

Question 27

what was the impact of the peasants' revolt on peasant's wages?

Answer 27

- peasants' wages began to rise because the situation before the revolt remained the same: there was a lack of workers so the peasants could demand more money - parliament eventually gave in and stopped trying to control the peasants' wages - the statute of labourers was eventually withdrawn

Question 28

what was the impact of the peasants' revolt on peasants' land?

Answer 28

- some peasants were even able to buy their own land because there was so much unused after the black death

Question 29

what was the impact of the peasants' revolt on peasants' freedom?

Answer 29

- gradually, peasants became more independent and within 100 years peasants and villeins were freemen

Question 30

what was the historians' view on the peasant's revolt?

Answer 30

- some historians believe that the revolt was unnecessary - they say that society was already changing and that serfdom was coming to an end - most historians believe that the revolt was significant, as it was the first time ordinary people, or the working class, had rebelled - some historians further believe that the revolt marks the start of english ideas of freedom