Peasant's Revolt

Question 1

Trouble at Brentwood

Answer 1

• 30th May, 1381
• John Bampton (tax collector for Essex) arrived with 2 sergeants to collect unpaid poll taxes
• 1st June - neighbouring villages ordered to appear before him to explain why they hadn’t paid
• Thomas Baker said they already had
• resisted arrest
• tax collectors forced to flee
• Male villagers fled to forest

Question 2

Describe the result of Brentwood

Answer 2

• more villages refused
• armed men banded together for protection and safety
• set off for London
• 13th June- reached Aldgate

Question 3

Describe the initial actions of the Kentish rebels

Answer 3

• serf escaped
• headed to Maidstone prison, freed prisoners (John Ball); went to Rochester Castle
• 7th June - Wat Tyler leader
• marched to Canterbury, killed officials, marched to London
• 12th June - several thousand men reached Blackheath

Question 4

Describe the Kentish rebels at London

Answer 4

• many Londoners supported and let them in
• prisons attacked and prisoners released
• Savoy Palace (home of John of Gaunt) attacked and burned to ground
• targeted royal officials, wealthy churchmen
• burnt records of land ownership and debt (Sheriff of Kent at Sittingbourne)
• 14th June - entered Tower of London, got Robert Hales (treasurer) and Archbishop Sudbury (of Canterbury) and beheaded them; their heads were put on top of long poles and paraded round London

Question 5

Describe negotiations with the Kentish rebels

Answer 5

• Richard II at Mile End
• rebels said that he had to hand over corrupt officials, abolish serfdom (and unfree tenure), amnesty for rebels and a return to the law of Winchester

Question 6

Describe Smithfield

Answer 6

• 15th June
• Wat Tyler made further demands
• Lord Mayor of London stabbed Tyler
• one of the king’s bodyguards killed him
• Richard II calmed rebels
• told them to go home and that their demands would be met

Question 7

Earlier disputes about tax

Answer 7

• 1278- tenants of Priory of Harmondsworth claimed exemption from labour services using Domesday book at court
• lost, broke into manor and stole charters and burnt records, threatened arson and murder of the Prior

Question 8

Describe the agriculture in the 14th century and it’s effect of the economy

Answer 8

• halved between 1315 and 1317
• 1319 and 1320- nearly half the sheep in the country died
• oxen struck by rinderpest
• flood, droughts and famine
• food and rent prices went up- gap between rich and poor increased

Question 9

Describe the Black Death in the 14th century

Answer 9

• 1348- arrived in Dorset
• killed up to 50% of population
• some villages wiped out, others did not have enough men to work the land
• rents lowered and wages raised
• Rudheath villages refused to work unless rents were decreased by 33%
• landlords enclosed land

Question 10

Describe the Statute of Labourers

Answer 10

• 1351
• said that everyone under the age of 60 had to work
• wages were no higher than in 1347

Question 11

Describe sumptuary laws

Answer 11

tried to regulate clothes people wore and foods they ate

Question 12

Describe the game laws and poaching

Answer 12

• laws strengthened and punishment toughened
• 1356- Duke of Arundel lost over 100 swans in one night
• 1376- over 100 villages requested a copy of the Domesday book

Question 13

Describe the war with France

Answer 13

• 1377- Rye burnt down by French fleet of over 120 ships
• Isle of Wight invaded - Carisbrooke Castle sieged
• many others raids

Question 14

Describe the Poll Tax of the 14th century

Answer 14

• needed to fund war with France
• 1377- ‘Good’ parliament impeached several royal officials and other members of the ‘Bad Parliament’ who granted tax on the grounds that they were incompetent and corrupt
• flat rate of 4d per person
• 1379- sliding scale; 7 grades established- humble sorts paid 4d, earls paid £4 - 1/3 tax-payers disappeared from the list
• 1381 - 1s 4d per person (to raise £160,000)

Question 15

Who joined the Peasant’s Revolt

Answer 15

• Londoners and South-Easterners
• artisans and skilled workers
• middle-aged, literate

Question 16

Short term consequences of the Peasant’s Revolt

Answer 16

• royal army marched to London and surrounded the remainders of the Essex rebels
• more armies marched to Kent, Suffolk, Yorkshire and Norfolk
• death estimated between 1,500 and 7,000

Question 17

Describe John Ball

Answer 17

• priest
• York, then Colchester
• 1364- excommunicated
• appeared before the Archbishop of Canterbury several times
• 1381- arrested
• captured in Coventry
• 12th July- trial at St. Albans
• 15th July- found guilty, hung, drawn and quartered - parts of his body sent to four corners of the kingdom

Question 18

Significance of Peasant’s Revolt

Answer 18

• leaders were rattled
• many landowners freed villeins
• 1450- all villeins free
• Levellers
• 1989 revolt

Question 19

Poll Tax of 1989

Answer 19

• rates were not fit for purpose and needed changing
• 1983- Conservative manifesto included Community Charge
• students and unemployed paid 20% of total
• All Britain Anti-Poll Tax Federation set up with branches throughout country
• protests held, refusal to pay was rife
• Terry Fields- 1991- Liverpool MP- sent to jail for 60 days for refusal to pay £373
• 31st March 1990- 200,000 ppl - fighting between demonstrators and police
• 1993- Council Tax