1 00:00:12,510 --> 00:00:15,550 Welcome to the London History Podcast, where we explore the 2 00:00:15,550 --> 00:00:19,030 stories, people and places that have shaped this incredible 3 00:00:19,030 --> 00:00:21,710 city. I am Hazel Baker from 4 00:00:21,710 --> 00:00:25,790 londonguidedwalks.co.uk. In this episode, we're 5 00:00:25,790 --> 00:00:28,190 travelling back to one of the most dramatic moments in 6 00:00:28,190 --> 00:00:32,590 medieval London, the Peasants Revolt of 1381. 7 00:00:33,560 --> 00:00:37,280 What began as a protest against taxis in rural Essex and Kent 8 00:00:37,520 --> 00:00:41,600 erupted into a full scale uprising that brought thousands 9 00:00:41,600 --> 00:00:45,720 of rebels into the heart of the city, demanding justice, freedom 10 00:00:45,800 --> 00:00:50,000 and reform. London suddenly became the stage 11 00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:54,080 for a violent confrontation between commoners and the Crown. 12 00:00:55,040 --> 00:00:58,160 Joining me to unpack this turbulent chapter in two 13 00:00:58,160 --> 00:01:02,760 episodes is Ian Mcdermid, a City of London guide and lecturer who 14 00:01:02,760 --> 00:01:06,400 specialises in medieval and early modern London. 15 00:01:07,120 --> 00:01:10,760 Ian also runs walking tours that trace footsteps of medieval 16 00:01:10,760 --> 00:01:14,840 Londoners, from merchants, monks to, well, yes, you've guessed 17 00:01:14,840 --> 00:01:19,880 it, rebellious peasants. Today we'll explore what drove 18 00:01:19,880 --> 00:01:23,360 ordinary people to rise up and how Londoners responded. 19 00:01:23,680 --> 00:01:26,800 And in Part 2, we'll see how the revolt really spread through 20 00:01:26,800 --> 00:01:30,880 London and what the legacies of the revolt left on the city. 21 00:01:31,920 --> 00:01:32,920 Hello, Ian. Welcome. 22 00:01:33,080 --> 00:01:37,280 Hello, Hazel. It's your first episode of 2026. 23 00:01:37,280 --> 00:01:38,160 How about that? Oh. 24 00:01:38,840 --> 00:01:42,440 Very exciting. I was looking at what we've done 25 00:01:42,440 --> 00:01:46,080 in the past, and we have done a Black Death episode, which is 26 00:01:46,080 --> 00:01:50,480 number 38, which might be useful for anybody wanting even more 27 00:01:50,480 --> 00:01:52,640 context of what we're talking about today. 28 00:01:53,120 --> 00:01:58,520 But it's worth really challenging the actual naming of 29 00:01:58,520 --> 00:02:00,440 this revolt. It's called The Peasants Revolt, 30 00:02:00,440 --> 00:02:02,920 but that that's a bit misleading, isn't it? 31 00:02:03,480 --> 00:02:07,360 Yes, it is, and we've run with that in our title for fear of 32 00:02:07,360 --> 00:02:09,039 confusing people if we don't use it. 33 00:02:09,280 --> 00:02:12,240 But it's actually a term that the professional historians 34 00:02:12,360 --> 00:02:16,200 abandoned about 40 years ago. So we keep it convenience, but 35 00:02:16,200 --> 00:02:19,320 it's doesn't really describe very well the people who 36 00:02:19,320 --> 00:02:23,080 participate in it. And the problem goes back to the 37 00:02:23,120 --> 00:02:24,880 people who were writing bats at the time. 38 00:02:25,040 --> 00:02:29,600 One of our main sources for, well, the main source for the 39 00:02:29,760 --> 00:02:32,360 events that we're going to be talking about are various 40 00:02:32,360 --> 00:02:36,240 chroniclers. And these chroniclers are for 41 00:02:36,240 --> 00:02:38,800 the most part attached to monasteries. 42 00:02:38,800 --> 00:02:42,440 They're all clerics. And partly as a result of that, 43 00:02:42,440 --> 00:02:45,600 they have a very jaundiced view of the people participating in 44 00:02:45,600 --> 00:02:48,960 the rebellion, and it suits their polemical purposes in 45 00:02:48,960 --> 00:02:52,760 writing their chronicles to treat the people who are 46 00:02:53,000 --> 00:02:55,560 involved in this uprising as the lowest of the low. 47 00:02:55,920 --> 00:03:00,000 And so a lot of them refer to the people involved as rustiki, 48 00:03:00,240 --> 00:03:02,520 which we would translate as peasants. 49 00:03:02,880 --> 00:03:08,360 But actually this isn't accurate and the chroniclers are a main 50 00:03:08,360 --> 00:03:10,120 source. The other principle source 51 00:03:10,120 --> 00:03:13,440 really is the indictments that occurred after the rebellion is 52 00:03:13,440 --> 00:03:16,840 over. And historians analysing these 53 00:03:17,200 --> 00:03:19,760 quite a long time ago now, particularly Rodney Hilton, 54 00:03:19,760 --> 00:03:22,720 pointed out the fact that quite a few of them were actually 55 00:03:22,920 --> 00:03:26,960 rather well off. And Hilton said that several of 56 00:03:26,960 --> 00:03:29,920 the people who were put on prison could actually be 57 00:03:29,920 --> 00:03:32,120 regarded as petty Gentry. So these are people who are 58 00:03:32,120 --> 00:03:36,840 actually farming several 100 acres and commanding incomes as 59 00:03:37,000 --> 00:03:41,720 high as 50 lbs. And on the chronicler's side, 60 00:03:41,720 --> 00:03:44,320 one of them, just to give an example of how this works, one 61 00:03:44,320 --> 00:03:47,560 of them is Thomas Walsingham, who's at Saint Albans, and he's 62 00:03:47,560 --> 00:03:50,600 continuing on the Chronicle of Matthew Paris. 63 00:03:51,040 --> 00:03:53,840 And St. Albans Abbey has a very troubled 64 00:03:53,840 --> 00:03:56,160 relationship with the town and the townsman. 65 00:03:56,560 --> 00:04:01,120 And the events of 1381 in Saint Albans, so our peasants revolt, 66 00:04:01,360 --> 00:04:04,680 are in many ways a kind of repeat of violence that broke 67 00:04:04,680 --> 00:04:08,120 out in the 1320s. In both cases, one of the things 68 00:04:08,120 --> 00:04:12,720 that annoys the townsman is the Abbey demanding that they mill 69 00:04:12,720 --> 00:04:16,519 their grain in the Abbey using the abbot's mill. 70 00:04:16,959 --> 00:04:22,040 And this is it flows into a wider dispute about the status 71 00:04:22,040 --> 00:04:23,520 of the people living in Saint Albans. 72 00:04:23,720 --> 00:04:27,040 The townspeople claim that they are part of a borough, that they 73 00:04:27,040 --> 00:04:29,960 are burgesses, that the Abbot doesn't have jurisdiction over 74 00:04:29,960 --> 00:04:32,800 them. And it's these kind of conflicts 75 00:04:32,800 --> 00:04:36,080 that really the Chronicles are a kind of edge really, that 76 00:04:36,080 --> 00:04:38,320 they're really directly affected by it. 77 00:04:38,320 --> 00:04:40,840 They're directly opposed to it. And we might also add that they 78 00:04:40,840 --> 00:04:44,560 are perhaps also naturally conservative with a small C. 79 00:04:44,680 --> 00:04:47,800 So it suits them to describe this rebellion as absolutely 80 00:04:47,800 --> 00:04:51,360 outrageous, an affront to the established order, an affront to 81 00:04:51,360 --> 00:04:53,720 God. And by depicting the people in 82 00:04:53,720 --> 00:04:56,240 it as peasants, it helps their argument. 83 00:04:56,400 --> 00:04:58,520 But it's a lot more complicated than that. 84 00:04:58,520 --> 00:05:02,280 And the people involved represent not the highest ranks 85 00:05:02,280 --> 00:05:05,840 of society, but they go they're not the poorest of the poor. 86 00:05:07,440 --> 00:05:09,800 Can you outline the background to the rising? 87 00:05:10,600 --> 00:05:12,880 Yeah. The revolt is principally caused 88 00:05:12,880 --> 00:05:16,880 by three things, I think. And of these, the most important 89 00:05:16,880 --> 00:05:21,200 and most immediate is taxation. And the taxation in this period 90 00:05:21,240 --> 00:05:25,600 is heavy and persistent. And then when we come to 1381, 91 00:05:25,600 --> 00:05:30,480 it becomes absolutely overbearing and also something 92 00:05:30,480 --> 00:05:33,960 I'm sure we'll come on to. They innovate in taxation and 93 00:05:33,960 --> 00:05:38,240 they introduce the poll taxes. There are three poll taxes and 94 00:05:38,400 --> 00:05:42,120 they've, as we'll probably see the way the poll taxes actually 95 00:05:42,120 --> 00:05:45,240 work, there is, but they are highly regressive, particularly 96 00:05:45,240 --> 00:05:47,880 the last one, which is is a flat rate. 97 00:05:48,040 --> 00:05:50,000 So these hit the poor the hardest. 98 00:05:50,440 --> 00:05:55,560 And one reaction to this is massive evasion. 99 00:05:55,920 --> 00:05:58,240 And the response of the administration is to send out 100 00:05:58,240 --> 00:06:01,800 commissioners to investigate. And these commissioners are 101 00:06:02,000 --> 00:06:04,120 deeply resented. It's very intrusive. 102 00:06:04,600 --> 00:06:09,200 The second reason for the rising is that this taxation doesn't 103 00:06:09,240 --> 00:06:11,600 lead anywhere. The reason that they are 104 00:06:11,600 --> 00:06:14,760 constantly raising taxes is because of warfare. 105 00:06:15,120 --> 00:06:20,360 And in this period, the warfare is spectacularly unsuccessful 106 00:06:20,360 --> 00:06:22,920 for the English. And it's an interesting question 107 00:06:22,920 --> 00:06:26,160 to to raise hypothetically, that if the English had actually won 108 00:06:26,160 --> 00:06:30,760 any notable victories, whether the peasants revolt would have 109 00:06:30,760 --> 00:06:32,480 occurred. But they don't. 110 00:06:32,640 --> 00:06:36,520 So the the people are being overburdened with this taxation 111 00:06:36,520 --> 00:06:40,040 and it's leading nowhere. And the administration appears 112 00:06:40,440 --> 00:06:43,960 incompetent. And this, this feeling of 113 00:06:43,960 --> 00:06:46,200 incompetence on the behalf as a description of the 114 00:06:46,200 --> 00:06:51,840 administration is heightened by also fears, beliefs that the 115 00:06:51,840 --> 00:06:54,880 administration is corrupt. The people who are serving the 116 00:06:54,880 --> 00:06:57,960 king are the people. And some of this money is being 117 00:06:57,960 --> 00:07:02,840 diverted into their own pockets. And then the third sort of main 118 00:07:02,840 --> 00:07:07,640 reason for the rising is long term economic change. 119 00:07:07,640 --> 00:07:09,600 And it's not so much the economic change themselves. 120 00:07:09,600 --> 00:07:13,280 It's rather the response of the landowning classes to this. 121 00:07:13,280 --> 00:07:15,240 And we're talking here about the Black Death. 122 00:07:15,440 --> 00:07:19,000 And hence you mentioning that earlier podcast on that subject 123 00:07:19,000 --> 00:07:23,080 will be useful. And what happens in the Black 124 00:07:23,080 --> 00:07:28,120 Death is that the population of England and Wales is reduced by 125 00:07:28,200 --> 00:07:31,120 something approaching 1/2. That's the kind of consensus now 126 00:07:31,120 --> 00:07:34,720 amongst historians. And one effect of this is that 127 00:07:35,040 --> 00:07:40,320 if you've survived and if you are engaged in labouring in some 128 00:07:40,320 --> 00:07:44,680 shape or form, your labour is suddenly much, much more 129 00:07:44,680 --> 00:07:48,440 valuable. And this creates big stress 130 00:07:48,440 --> 00:07:51,920 because the landowning classes, they lose out because the labour 131 00:07:51,920 --> 00:07:54,440 they have to employ is suddenly much more expensive. 132 00:07:55,080 --> 00:07:59,080 And the land owners react and they try to turn the clock back. 133 00:07:59,080 --> 00:08:02,560 And it's their attempt to do this that causes huge 134 00:08:02,560 --> 00:08:05,800 resentment. Could you tell us a little bit 135 00:08:05,800 --> 00:08:09,040 more about how the fall in population after the Black Death 136 00:08:09,040 --> 00:08:13,560 changed English society? One way that this decline in the 137 00:08:13,560 --> 00:08:18,440 population effects English society is that it loosens up 138 00:08:18,840 --> 00:08:23,840 serfdom and if you are a serf you are unfree. 139 00:08:24,160 --> 00:08:27,680 And some estimates have about 60% of the peasantry in England 140 00:08:27,680 --> 00:08:32,960 and Wales being serfs. And the way that you lacked 141 00:08:32,960 --> 00:08:37,120 freedom works in various ways. So firstly you are subject to 142 00:08:37,120 --> 00:08:42,559 the Menorial Court and the Memorial Court will have 143 00:08:42,559 --> 00:08:45,920 jurisdiction over you in the case of minor offences, but it 144 00:08:45,920 --> 00:08:50,320 also deals with disputes about your land, owning your land 145 00:08:50,320 --> 00:08:53,560 holding and the obligations that arise from that. 146 00:08:53,840 --> 00:08:56,720 And the Memorial Court is staffed by officials of the 147 00:08:56,720 --> 00:08:59,000 Lord. So this is a system that's very 148 00:08:59,000 --> 00:09:02,120 much works against you as a serf. 149 00:09:02,800 --> 00:09:06,920 Secondly, you are unfree because you are tied to the land. 150 00:09:07,280 --> 00:09:10,280 And thirdly, there are various obligations upon you to give 151 00:09:10,280 --> 00:09:13,200 your labour for free. So you have to work on the 152 00:09:13,400 --> 00:09:18,360 Lord's demean land so many days. Often this is 4 days every other 153 00:09:18,360 --> 00:09:21,040 week, something like that. But there are also other labour 154 00:09:21,040 --> 00:09:22,760 services which are deeply resented. 155 00:09:22,800 --> 00:09:26,360 The one that's perhaps most resented is the demand that you 156 00:09:26,600 --> 00:09:30,800 provide transport for the Lord's produce in a cart to market, but 157 00:09:30,800 --> 00:09:34,680 you also have to help maintain roads and ditches. 158 00:09:35,040 --> 00:09:38,040 After the Black Death, the peasants are in a much stronger 159 00:09:38,240 --> 00:09:41,160 bargaining position. And although you're not supposed 160 00:09:41,160 --> 00:09:45,080 to run away, one thing that could do is they could run away 161 00:09:45,080 --> 00:09:47,360 and find better conditions elsewhere. 162 00:09:47,800 --> 00:09:50,320 But they don't have to go to that extreme because a lot of 163 00:09:50,320 --> 00:09:55,120 the land owners will try and prevent that by softening the 164 00:09:55,120 --> 00:09:58,120 terms of land holding. And in particular, what often 165 00:09:58,120 --> 00:10:03,320 happens is that the serfs who run away then take land on a 166 00:10:03,320 --> 00:10:06,320 different tenure basis. Instead of it being customary 167 00:10:06,320 --> 00:10:08,400 tenure, they become copy holders. 168 00:10:08,800 --> 00:10:13,800 And some Lords will voluntarily convert their customary tenants 169 00:10:13,880 --> 00:10:16,920 into copy holders to forestall them running away. 170 00:10:17,200 --> 00:10:20,520 And the key thing about a copy hold is that it is a rental 171 00:10:20,520 --> 00:10:21,960 agreement. It's about cash. 172 00:10:21,960 --> 00:10:25,000 You pay for the land and essentially that's it. 173 00:10:25,240 --> 00:10:27,280 And it's called copy hold because it's a written 174 00:10:27,280 --> 00:10:29,800 agreement. This isn't customary law. 175 00:10:29,800 --> 00:10:32,520 That's decided by the memorial court. 176 00:10:32,720 --> 00:10:35,920 You have a written agreement with the landowner. 177 00:10:36,600 --> 00:10:41,960 And in addition to that, also often although the serfs carry 178 00:10:41,960 --> 00:10:47,480 on being customary tenants, the terms of that customary tenancy 179 00:10:47,520 --> 00:10:52,240 are changed and softened so that the distinction between copy 180 00:10:52,240 --> 00:10:55,600 hold and customary holdings becomes blurred. 181 00:10:56,520 --> 00:11:01,760 And I'm talking about the way this work to serfs advantages, 182 00:11:01,760 --> 00:11:05,400 but a lot of land owners aren't keen to make the concessions 183 00:11:05,400 --> 00:11:08,000 that I've been talking about. And in particular, this thing 184 00:11:08,000 --> 00:11:12,000 that you are legally tied to the land is something that a lot of 185 00:11:12,000 --> 00:11:17,000 land owners try to use to put the clock back and they go after 186 00:11:17,000 --> 00:11:20,920 peasants, serfs who have run away and they use the legal 187 00:11:20,920 --> 00:11:23,480 system to try and bring them back. 188 00:11:23,480 --> 00:11:27,760 And this causes huge resentment. However, it one of the 189 00:11:27,760 --> 00:11:29,840 interesting things about the Peasants Revolt is as we're 190 00:11:29,840 --> 00:11:32,600 going to come to, the main events of it are played out in 191 00:11:32,800 --> 00:11:36,800 Kent, Essex and London. So there there are risings 192 00:11:36,800 --> 00:11:39,280 elsewhere, but essentially what happens is you have these two 193 00:11:39,280 --> 00:11:42,760 big risings in these two southeastern counties and they 194 00:11:42,760 --> 00:11:45,720 March on London and then Londoners join in. 195 00:11:46,400 --> 00:11:49,440 One of the interesting things is obviously there's no serfdom in 196 00:11:49,440 --> 00:11:53,160 London, but there's very little of it in Essex and there's 197 00:11:53,160 --> 00:11:57,600 hardly any at all in Kent. And yet when they make their 198 00:11:57,600 --> 00:12:03,040 demands and the rebels gain access to London and they have a 199 00:12:03,040 --> 00:12:04,800 total of three meetings with the King. 200 00:12:04,800 --> 00:12:06,240 What? We'll go into these a bit later 201 00:12:06,240 --> 00:12:08,440 on, I'm sure. One's on the river at around 202 00:12:08,440 --> 00:12:11,520 Deptford. The two big meetings are at Mile 203 00:12:11,520 --> 00:12:14,800 End and then the famous climactic one at Smithfield. 204 00:12:15,600 --> 00:12:19,640 And in those two latter meetings, the rebels demand the 205 00:12:19,640 --> 00:12:22,200 abolition of serfdom. So it's obviously an issue 206 00:12:22,200 --> 00:12:23,680 that's extremely important to them. 207 00:12:23,880 --> 00:12:28,400 And it might be that this is sympathy on behalf of other 208 00:12:28,480 --> 00:12:30,000 people who are having a hard time. 209 00:12:30,240 --> 00:12:33,080 But I think that the serfdom issue becomes wrapped up in, in 210 00:12:33,080 --> 00:12:37,440 general, resentment against the privileges of land owners, the 211 00:12:37,440 --> 00:12:39,520 kind of people who are running memorial courts. 212 00:12:39,800 --> 00:12:43,440 And it's all the kinds of privileges that these land 213 00:12:43,440 --> 00:12:46,960 owners have. And key in this is the church, 214 00:12:46,960 --> 00:12:50,760 because the Church of all the land owners, they are the really 215 00:12:50,760 --> 00:12:53,680 professional ones. They have the kind of skilled, 216 00:12:53,680 --> 00:12:55,520 literate people working for them. 217 00:12:55,760 --> 00:12:58,760 And of course they have institutional continuity. 218 00:12:59,240 --> 00:13:03,120 And one of the key things about the big ecclesiastical land 219 00:13:03,120 --> 00:13:06,840 owners that the priories and the monasteries is that they have 220 00:13:06,840 --> 00:13:10,680 documents, they have rooms where they keep records and charters, 221 00:13:11,000 --> 00:13:13,360 and they can assert things they can say to people. 222 00:13:13,360 --> 00:13:15,080 Actually, what you're saying is completely wrong. 223 00:13:15,200 --> 00:13:17,320 We have the right to do this because we've got charters to 224 00:13:17,320 --> 00:13:20,280 prove it. And you'll never know until it 225 00:13:20,280 --> 00:13:21,840 goes to court. You won't know what the 226 00:13:21,840 --> 00:13:24,520 monastery has got. And indeed, when they get to 227 00:13:24,520 --> 00:13:28,760 court, their charters could be legally ambiguous, but they have 228 00:13:28,760 --> 00:13:32,040 all the skills for arguing them. A lot of the resentment in the 229 00:13:32,040 --> 00:13:35,440 rising is directed towards the church. 230 00:13:35,840 --> 00:13:39,080 And it's not just about serfdom, I think it's about other 231 00:13:39,360 --> 00:13:43,480 memorial rights. And one other effect of the 232 00:13:43,480 --> 00:13:47,680 Black Death is that by reducing the population, by making labour 233 00:13:47,680 --> 00:13:51,320 much more expensive, but by also reducing the demand for bread, 234 00:13:51,640 --> 00:13:56,560 it encourages a shift from wheat production to pastoral farming. 235 00:13:56,920 --> 00:14:00,520 And with that, you've got a lot of problems because a monastery, 236 00:14:00,520 --> 00:14:04,480 for example, may say this bit of land that you say is common land 237 00:14:04,480 --> 00:14:07,160 is actually our land. We've got a chance of proving it 238 00:14:07,480 --> 00:14:09,720 and we're going to graze our sheep on it. 239 00:14:10,120 --> 00:14:14,000 And one of the targets of the rebels in a lot of places are 240 00:14:14,240 --> 00:14:18,600 monastic ditches and dikes that they've used to boundaries 241 00:14:18,600 --> 00:14:24,160 around what in to other people is disputed land. 242 00:14:26,720 --> 00:14:30,040 People have been using those to pick up firewood and other 243 00:14:30,040 --> 00:14:33,840 things as well, aren't they? Yeah, useful spaces. 244 00:14:34,200 --> 00:14:37,400 So they also went past the Statute of Labourers after the 245 00:14:37,400 --> 00:14:40,840 Black Death. Can you say what that was and 246 00:14:40,840 --> 00:14:42,480 what role they played in the Rising? 247 00:14:43,120 --> 00:14:45,880 Yeah, I think in a way the statute of labour is, is more 248 00:14:46,120 --> 00:14:49,600 directly involved than the question of serfdom. 249 00:14:49,600 --> 00:14:53,880 So we were saying that the advantage to the services that 250 00:14:53,960 --> 00:14:57,520 in essence their labour becomes much more valuable and serfdom, 251 00:14:57,520 --> 00:15:01,280 which was making them give labour services for free, they 252 00:15:01,280 --> 00:15:04,640 can replace that by being demand, demanding A monetary 253 00:15:04,640 --> 00:15:08,560 payment for that. And in parallel, what happens is 254 00:15:08,560 --> 00:15:11,640 that the cost of labour for anything goes up. 255 00:15:11,640 --> 00:15:14,880 So whether you're getting talking about labour that you're 256 00:15:14,880 --> 00:15:18,960 paying money for to work on your farm or labour for artisans, 257 00:15:18,960 --> 00:15:24,120 Craftsman, it goes up. And the Nigel Sowell who's 258 00:15:24,120 --> 00:15:28,240 written perhaps the main biography of Rich the second, he 259 00:15:28,240 --> 00:15:34,000 says that he cites the that a skilled labourer or plowman who 260 00:15:34,000 --> 00:15:38,200 had worked for 10 shillings a year could now command 20 to 30 261 00:15:38,200 --> 00:15:42,160 shillings. And again the land owners and 262 00:15:42,160 --> 00:15:43,960 the administration are not happy with this. 263 00:15:43,960 --> 00:15:47,960 And in June 3049 they passed the Ordinance of Labourers and this 264 00:15:47,960 --> 00:15:51,280 is then replaced by the Statute of Labourers in 1351. 265 00:15:51,600 --> 00:15:57,160 And what these acts do is they fix rates of pay at pre epidemic 266 00:15:57,520 --> 00:16:00,320 levels. Now the general consensus of 267 00:16:00,320 --> 00:16:05,880 historians are in response to what's all sites about the fact 268 00:16:05,880 --> 00:16:09,720 that the wages have risen believe that this attempt to put 269 00:16:09,720 --> 00:16:12,240 the clock back is completely ineffective. 270 00:16:12,760 --> 00:16:16,360 Wages do rise because there is much less labour around. 271 00:16:16,640 --> 00:16:21,800 However, the attempt to try and put the clock back causes huge 272 00:16:21,800 --> 00:16:24,360 resentment. And I've mentioned Nigel Saul's 273 00:16:24,360 --> 00:16:27,200 book on Rich the second, another very good book on the, on this 274 00:16:27,200 --> 00:16:30,200 period is Alistair Dunn's book The Great Rising. 275 00:16:30,400 --> 00:16:34,600 And he's very good on the kind of tensions between the, the 276 00:16:34,600 --> 00:16:37,840 artisans, the peasants and the land owning classes, the the 277 00:16:37,840 --> 00:16:41,920 land owners, I should say. And what happens with this 278 00:16:41,960 --> 00:16:45,000 statute of laborers is that initially they appoint special 279 00:16:45,000 --> 00:16:47,040 commissioners to go out and investigate things. 280 00:16:47,280 --> 00:16:51,400 But later on Dunn says that this work of commissioners is 281 00:16:51,400 --> 00:16:54,400 subsumed by the justices of the peace. 282 00:16:54,640 --> 00:16:58,080 So the justices of the peace are all land owners, they're the 283 00:16:58,080 --> 00:17:01,120 people who are sitting in judgement in a lot of the 284 00:17:01,120 --> 00:17:04,160 courts. And they're also relying on the 285 00:17:04,160 --> 00:17:09,640 collusion of local land owners officials and royal officials 286 00:17:09,640 --> 00:17:14,000 such as Bay leaves Reeves stewards to gather their 287 00:17:14,000 --> 00:17:17,440 evidence. And so this really creates a lot 288 00:17:17,440 --> 00:17:20,880 of tension. Wasn't the war you mentioned as 289 00:17:20,880 --> 00:17:24,000 the backdrop to the rising the 100 Years War, which began in 290 00:17:24,119 --> 00:17:28,440 1337 and was fought primarily over England's possession of 291 00:17:28,440 --> 00:17:34,360 Aquitaine? Yes, so Aquitaine, this huge 292 00:17:34,400 --> 00:17:39,280 Dutchie in southwest of France had become into English hands 293 00:17:39,280 --> 00:17:44,400 through Eleanor of Aquitaine who marries Henry the Second and it 294 00:17:44,400 --> 00:17:47,520 becomes a possession of the English crown. 295 00:17:47,960 --> 00:17:53,440 Then in the 12th century. And given it's sort of size, 296 00:17:53,440 --> 00:17:56,960 it's an obvious target for the French monarchy, which is always 297 00:17:56,960 --> 00:17:59,480 trying to expand it's control within France. 298 00:17:59,920 --> 00:18:04,840 But it and in 1337, the crucial thing here is that the French 299 00:18:04,840 --> 00:18:07,600 sees most of it. So this is the kind of the main 300 00:18:07,600 --> 00:18:11,000 thing that provokes the war. But in addition to the question 301 00:18:11,000 --> 00:18:14,560 of the physical control of this Dutchie, there's the question of 302 00:18:14,560 --> 00:18:18,320 whether the English kings should pay homage for it. 303 00:18:18,640 --> 00:18:22,800 When Eleanor brings it as part of her, when she marries Henry 304 00:18:22,800 --> 00:18:26,480 the Second, it is held as a kind of sovereign holding by her. 305 00:18:26,480 --> 00:18:30,120 She does not pay homage to the king of France for Aquitaine. 306 00:18:30,720 --> 00:18:34,880 And this becomes a vital question for them because if the 307 00:18:34,880 --> 00:18:39,200 English king has to pay homage for Aquitaine, it has 2 308 00:18:39,200 --> 00:18:43,160 applicant, 2 important implications. 1 is the perverse 309 00:18:43,160 --> 00:18:46,280 one that the king of France could ask the English king for 310 00:18:46,280 --> 00:18:48,800 military aid against the English king. 311 00:18:49,720 --> 00:18:52,880 So that's a rather strange implication of the English kings 312 00:18:52,880 --> 00:18:56,120 paying homage. But also it means that in law, 313 00:18:56,520 --> 00:19:01,560 any disputes can be taken on appeal to a higher court in 314 00:19:01,560 --> 00:19:05,120 France. And this would give the French 315 00:19:05,120 --> 00:19:11,880 kings endless reasons, excuses for intervening, in addition to 316 00:19:11,880 --> 00:19:17,800 the cause of Aquitaine. In addition, the English kings 317 00:19:17,800 --> 00:19:21,840 claim that they are the kings of France. 318 00:19:22,360 --> 00:19:27,280 And most historians, I think, now think that this is more of 319 00:19:28,400 --> 00:19:29,640 something that the English kings use. 320 00:19:29,640 --> 00:19:32,200 They're not particularly interested in this period in 321 00:19:32,200 --> 00:19:36,040 becoming kings of France, and one bit of evidence for that is 322 00:19:36,040 --> 00:19:40,120 that Edward the Third only stakes his claim to the throne 323 00:19:40,120 --> 00:19:45,960 of France in 1340, when actually the year in which he should have 324 00:19:45,960 --> 00:19:49,040 claimed it if he was really being interested in it was a lot 325 00:19:49,040 --> 00:19:51,640 earlier. The key event in terms of the 326 00:19:51,640 --> 00:19:55,440 succession is in 1328, when the last of the completion kings 327 00:19:55,720 --> 00:19:59,880 dies out and Edward the Third had a better claim. 328 00:20:00,360 --> 00:20:03,440 To the throne and pretty much any anyone else through his 329 00:20:03,440 --> 00:20:07,320 mother Isabel, who was a daughter of the king of France. 330 00:20:08,240 --> 00:20:10,960 But the French give it to a cadet line, the Valois. 331 00:20:11,280 --> 00:20:14,320 So the French clearly do not want to have an English king. 332 00:20:14,560 --> 00:20:18,040 But it's probably also true that Edward the Third realizes that 333 00:20:18,040 --> 00:20:20,560 actually it would be a bit impractical because his English 334 00:20:20,560 --> 00:20:23,280 subjects probably don't want him to become king of France, and 335 00:20:23,280 --> 00:20:26,960 although England in total is a much smaller Kingdom than 336 00:20:26,960 --> 00:20:30,520 France, less prestigious. The great thing about England is 337 00:20:30,520 --> 00:20:33,280 that it's centralized, whereas the poor kings of France, they 338 00:20:33,280 --> 00:20:37,040 only control a little bit of their territory, and English 339 00:20:37,040 --> 00:20:39,920 subjects would not want their king. 340 00:20:39,920 --> 00:20:44,200 They would not want to pay taxes to a king who might be using the 341 00:20:44,200 --> 00:20:48,080 revenue to fight wars for his dynasty which have absolutely no 342 00:20:48,080 --> 00:20:51,280 relation to English interests whatsoever. 343 00:20:51,920 --> 00:20:54,880 But anyway, that's an extensible reason for the war. 344 00:20:55,080 --> 00:20:58,960 And this war begins, breaks out in 1337, obviously from its 345 00:20:58,960 --> 00:21:01,200 title, the 100 Years War, it goes on for a long time. 346 00:21:01,440 --> 00:21:06,280 In fact, it it ends in the 1450s, but the beginning goes 347 00:21:06,920 --> 00:21:11,320 pretty well for the English. And in particular in 1356 at the 348 00:21:11,320 --> 00:21:14,640 Battle of Poitier, they win this tremendous victory. 349 00:21:14,920 --> 00:21:18,520 And the victory includes capturing the French king, which 350 00:21:18,600 --> 00:21:21,120 enriches the English because they can demand a ransom, but 351 00:21:21,120 --> 00:21:22,960 also obviously gives them huge leverage. 352 00:21:23,320 --> 00:21:27,800 And the culmination of the 100 Years War from the high point of 353 00:21:27,800 --> 00:21:32,720 the war from an English point of view is in 1360 when the French 354 00:21:32,720 --> 00:21:35,840 signed the Treaty of Bretonier. And this gives Edward the Third 355 00:21:35,840 --> 00:21:38,560 essentially all he wants. It gives him an enlarged 356 00:21:38,720 --> 00:21:41,280 Aquitaine. It's recognised that he does not 357 00:21:41,280 --> 00:21:43,000 have to pay homage to the King of France for it. 358 00:21:43,000 --> 00:21:46,360 So those are the key things. And in return he generously 359 00:21:46,360 --> 00:21:49,000 gives up his claims to the throne of France. 360 00:21:49,800 --> 00:21:51,160 So that's the high point of the war. 361 00:21:51,160 --> 00:21:54,360 The problem is that from then onwards things begin to go 362 00:21:54,360 --> 00:22:00,560 downhill and the English and the French begin to fight things 363 00:22:00,680 --> 00:22:02,320 out. The French are constantly 364 00:22:02,320 --> 00:22:05,960 nibbling away at English holdings in Aquitaine, and they 365 00:22:05,960 --> 00:22:09,720 fight a kind of proxy war in Castile, the most important 366 00:22:09,720 --> 00:22:14,120 Kingdom in in Spain in the 1360s, whereby they each side 367 00:22:14,440 --> 00:22:16,640 supports rival claimants to the throne. 368 00:22:16,880 --> 00:22:21,640 The English in the end lose out on this, and this is important 369 00:22:21,640 --> 00:22:26,360 partly because the Castilians have a very powerful fleet and 370 00:22:26,480 --> 00:22:29,080 that fleet can be used to threaten the English. 371 00:22:30,760 --> 00:22:35,800 In the 1370s, warfare again breaks out between the English 372 00:22:35,800 --> 00:22:38,000 and the French directly, and there are lots of English 373 00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:41,400 expeditions to France. They achieve very little. 374 00:22:41,400 --> 00:22:43,760 They cause a lot of devastation, but they don't cause anything. 375 00:22:44,040 --> 00:22:47,240 So the English are fighting the French in Spain and then they're 376 00:22:47,400 --> 00:22:49,440 launching all of these raids into France. 377 00:22:49,760 --> 00:22:53,920 And then in 1380, they launch another expedition that goes 378 00:22:53,920 --> 00:22:56,520 through France, and this time they're trying to prop up the 379 00:22:56,520 --> 00:22:59,280 Duke of Brittany. But there's two big problems. 380 00:22:59,280 --> 00:23:02,000 One, as per normal, this big raid doesn't achieve anything. 381 00:23:02,520 --> 00:23:05,880 And the second problem is that the Duke of Brittany changes 382 00:23:05,960 --> 00:23:07,520 sight. He comes to terms with the 383 00:23:07,520 --> 00:23:11,080 French and the army. Or Thomas of Woodstock, who is 384 00:23:11,520 --> 00:23:14,640 rich, the second's youngest uncle, is left stranded. 385 00:23:15,080 --> 00:23:18,200 And it's the payment for this expedition that causes the 386 00:23:18,200 --> 00:23:19,920 problems. First of all, they raise 387 00:23:19,920 --> 00:23:23,280 taxation before going, and then he's left stranded and they need 388 00:23:23,280 --> 00:23:25,680 to raise more taxation to pay the wages. 389 00:23:25,960 --> 00:23:30,440 And it's this need that leads to the third and final poll tax, 390 00:23:30,640 --> 00:23:34,600 which is then the thing that causes the revolt to to break 391 00:23:34,600 --> 00:23:37,800 out. Does this lead to the 392 00:23:37,800 --> 00:23:40,800 introduction of the infamous poll taxis, like the three of 393 00:23:40,800 --> 00:23:42,840 them during the reign of Edward the Third? 394 00:23:43,440 --> 00:23:45,160 Yes. So what what happens is that the 395 00:23:45,160 --> 00:23:48,480 main form of taxation in the mediaeval period, before and 396 00:23:48,480 --> 00:23:52,240 after the great rising we as we might call it, is the subsidy. 397 00:23:52,760 --> 00:23:57,880 And the subsidy is a tax on movable wealth, and it's 398 00:23:57,880 --> 00:24:03,200 assessed at 110th of movable wealth in towns and 115th in the 399 00:24:03,200 --> 00:24:07,080 countryside. And in the 1330s, this becomes a 400 00:24:07,080 --> 00:24:08,560 fixed sum. So they're not going to go 401 00:24:08,560 --> 00:24:11,360 around trying to work out who owes what each time they want to 402 00:24:11,360 --> 00:24:14,680 raise tax, but instead it's fixed and each community has to 403 00:24:14,680 --> 00:24:18,200 pay a fixed amount. And there are a couple of 404 00:24:18,200 --> 00:24:21,320 problems with this as a form of taxation. 405 00:24:21,600 --> 00:24:25,000 The first is the Black Death again. 406 00:24:25,280 --> 00:24:29,160 And not only does the Black Death diminish the population, 407 00:24:29,160 --> 00:24:31,960 but also, partly because of what we were talking about earlier 408 00:24:31,960 --> 00:24:35,320 on, it changes it's physical distribution. 409 00:24:35,320 --> 00:24:38,080 A lot. People move around and some 410 00:24:38,080 --> 00:24:42,120 communities flourish after the Black Death, but an awful lot 411 00:24:42,120 --> 00:24:47,360 are left depopulated. And yet with these these tax 412 00:24:47,360 --> 00:24:50,760 assessments that go back to the 1330s, and as a result of this 413 00:24:50,760 --> 00:24:54,640 kind of shift of the productive wealth, the tax becomes much 414 00:24:54,640 --> 00:24:59,200 less efficient. The second problem with it is 415 00:24:59,200 --> 00:25:02,440 that the people who are voting for it, the members of the House 416 00:25:02,440 --> 00:25:08,240 of Commons who are Gentry, they are land owners, they are also 417 00:25:08,240 --> 00:25:12,160 merchants. They are the people who are 418 00:25:12,160 --> 00:25:15,000 paying this tax, but they're also the ones who are voting for 419 00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:16,600 it. And they're getting a bit fed up 420 00:25:16,600 --> 00:25:21,520 with this heavy taxation. So they come up in the 1370s 421 00:25:21,520 --> 00:25:26,160 with the idea of a new tax which won't affect them the kind of 422 00:25:26,160 --> 00:25:29,520 property classes that and the merchants so much as all the 423 00:25:29,520 --> 00:25:31,200 other ordinary people in the country. 424 00:25:31,560 --> 00:25:35,080 And in 1377 they the first of the poll taxes. 425 00:25:35,080 --> 00:25:38,280 They demand fourpence. There are just to remind 426 00:25:38,280 --> 00:25:42,200 everybody, there are 12 pence in the shilling and fourpence is a 427 00:25:42,200 --> 00:25:45,120 groat. They demand fourpence from every 428 00:25:45,120 --> 00:25:49,240 male and female over 14, accepting only beggars. 429 00:25:49,680 --> 00:25:52,120 And the administration are quite pleased with this, because it 430 00:25:52,120 --> 00:25:56,320 yields 22,000 lbs quite easily. There doesn't appear to be any 431 00:25:56,320 --> 00:26:01,320 opposition. And in 1379 again this kind of 432 00:26:01,320 --> 00:26:05,560 repetitive demands and money. They decide to repeat the 433 00:26:05,560 --> 00:26:08,920 exercise, but this time with sliding scales. 434 00:26:08,920 --> 00:26:12,000 So it begins at 4 pence. But the population is divided 435 00:26:12,000 --> 00:26:15,200 into 7 broad groups and there are lots of categories within 436 00:26:15,200 --> 00:26:18,560 these groups. And there is a sliding scale. 437 00:26:18,880 --> 00:26:22,640 And again, they seem to think this is very good, though 438 00:26:22,640 --> 00:26:26,520 actually the yield on this time declines to 18,600 lbs. 439 00:26:26,520 --> 00:26:29,480 So maybe there's a sort of beginnings of a clue there which 440 00:26:29,480 --> 00:26:32,640 nobody sees, that perhaps the taxation is running into 441 00:26:32,640 --> 00:26:36,160 problems. And then for this Thomas, the 442 00:26:36,160 --> 00:26:39,080 Woodstock expedition, which goes off to France and tries to help 443 00:26:39,080 --> 00:26:42,120 the Duke of Brittany. In January 1380, Parliament 444 00:26:42,120 --> 00:26:46,720 votes a subsidy. They vote 1 1/2 fifteenths and 445 00:26:46,720 --> 00:26:49,320 tenths to help the expedition. But then, as we just mentioned, 446 00:26:49,440 --> 00:26:51,120 the expedition gets into terrible trouble. 447 00:26:51,120 --> 00:26:55,120 He needs more money and the third poll tax falls. 448 00:26:56,280 --> 00:26:59,040 This is when the third poll tax is resorted to. 449 00:26:59,320 --> 00:27:04,400 And in November 1380, Parliament meets at Northampton under a new 450 00:27:04,400 --> 00:27:08,080 Chancellor, Archbishop Sudbury. One of the roles of the 451 00:27:08,080 --> 00:27:10,560 Chancellor. He is the most important royal 452 00:27:10,560 --> 00:27:13,120 official at this time. He's in charge of the Chancery, 453 00:27:13,120 --> 00:27:15,960 which is the kind of secretarial department of government. 454 00:27:16,320 --> 00:27:19,880 And he makes the case and he demands the enormous sum of 455 00:27:19,880 --> 00:27:24,320 160,000 lbs. And we can put that in context 456 00:27:24,480 --> 00:27:26,400 quite easy because if you remember, I just said that the 457 00:27:26,400 --> 00:27:32,400 first poll tax yielded 22,000. So 160 is an absolutely enormous 458 00:27:32,400 --> 00:27:37,680 sum and the fiscal crisis of the crown is exacerbated because not 459 00:27:37,680 --> 00:27:41,400 only do they have to pay for this English army, but also at 460 00:27:41,400 --> 00:27:44,960 this time there is a revolt of the Flemish towns against the 461 00:27:44,960 --> 00:27:48,880 counter Flanders. And this leads to a crash in 462 00:27:48,880 --> 00:27:52,000 demand for English wall because the English wall is largely 463 00:27:52,000 --> 00:27:55,160 exported to Flanders where it's it's turned into sort of 464 00:27:55,160 --> 00:27:57,880 manufactured goods. And it leads to a fall in the 465 00:27:57,880 --> 00:28:02,400 revenue from the wool subsidy. So they vote the third poll tax 466 00:28:02,400 --> 00:28:06,320 through, and this time it's going to be a flat rate again, 467 00:28:06,880 --> 00:28:12,200 but the flat rate is 12 pence, so three times the amount 468 00:28:12,200 --> 00:28:17,200 demanded in the first poll tax. And everyone over the age of 15 469 00:28:17,400 --> 00:28:21,920 is subject to paying it. And one nice little detail is 470 00:28:21,920 --> 00:28:24,760 that if you're a married couple for the first time, you are 471 00:28:24,760 --> 00:28:26,800 assessed separately. You both have to pay it. 472 00:28:28,000 --> 00:28:32,240 Now, the better off are enjoined to help the poor, but there's no 473 00:28:32,240 --> 00:28:35,080 system in place to put that in. So it's just a kind of pious 474 00:28:35,080 --> 00:28:39,760 hope. And this leads to wide scale 475 00:28:39,920 --> 00:28:44,560 evasion. And in March 1381, commissioners 476 00:28:44,640 --> 00:28:49,520 are sent out with powers to investigate the evasion. 477 00:28:49,520 --> 00:28:53,000 And specifically, what they're looking for is to identify 478 00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:55,880 individuals who are missing from the tax returns. 479 00:28:56,240 --> 00:29:00,360 And it is this kind of intrusive investigation, the resentment of 480 00:29:00,360 --> 00:29:04,080 the demands of the taxation, that leads to the outbreak of 481 00:29:04,080 --> 00:29:08,640 the revolt. And when the revolt breaks out, 482 00:29:08,840 --> 00:29:11,960 Richard the Second is only 14 years old. 483 00:29:12,440 --> 00:29:15,320 How important do you think that was for the rebellion? 484 00:29:16,360 --> 00:29:20,680 It's important in the sense that the government is still not in 485 00:29:20,680 --> 00:29:26,360 the hands of a strong, determined monarch like Edward 486 00:29:26,360 --> 00:29:30,440 the Third had been in his younger days, and this is a 487 00:29:30,440 --> 00:29:35,800 continuation of a lack of a central, authoritative figure in 488 00:29:35,800 --> 00:29:38,680 English government from around 1370 onwards. 489 00:29:39,760 --> 00:29:42,480 Richard the Second comes to the throne in 1377. 490 00:29:43,000 --> 00:29:45,760 The problem before his accessions to the throne is that 491 00:29:45,760 --> 00:29:49,680 in the 1370s, Edward the Third, his grandfather, has become 492 00:29:49,680 --> 00:29:52,680 senile. The other problem is that from 493 00:29:52,680 --> 00:29:56,880 about 1370, Edward the Black Prince, Edward the Third's 494 00:29:57,000 --> 00:30:00,280 eldest son, is the victim of some kind of debilitating 495 00:30:00,280 --> 00:30:05,520 illness and he dies in 1376. But the one of the key things is 496 00:30:05,520 --> 00:30:09,680 that in this period of the 1370s, he is not capable of 497 00:30:09,680 --> 00:30:12,320 imposing himself. He spends a lot of the time 498 00:30:12,320 --> 00:30:14,360 bedridden. And as a result of this, as a 499 00:30:14,360 --> 00:30:16,880 result of the problems at the end of Edward the Third Strain 500 00:30:16,880 --> 00:30:18,880 and the fact that you have this young boy who comes to the 501 00:30:18,880 --> 00:30:22,520 throne in 1377, he's aged 10 in 1377. 502 00:30:22,960 --> 00:30:28,200 And the government is, it lacks an authoritative figure. 503 00:30:28,200 --> 00:30:30,560 And this is important perceptions as much as anything 504 00:30:30,560 --> 00:30:34,600 else, because people believe that the government is being 505 00:30:34,600 --> 00:30:38,560 manipulated by favourites who are out to feather their own 506 00:30:38,560 --> 00:30:41,720 nests. And certainly under Edward the 507 00:30:41,720 --> 00:30:45,400 Third that is the case. Edward the Third, he has a 508 00:30:45,400 --> 00:30:50,200 mistress, Alice Perez, who is deeply resented and she 509 00:30:50,200 --> 00:30:52,560 basically controls access to the king. 510 00:30:53,000 --> 00:30:55,880 And there is a favorite of Perry's who becomes the 511 00:30:55,880 --> 00:30:57,680 Chamberlain. This is William Latimer. 512 00:30:58,040 --> 00:31:01,600 And he, as the chamberlain's in charge of a lot of cash, which 513 00:31:01,600 --> 00:31:05,120 isn't subject to the kind of checks and audits that are 514 00:31:05,120 --> 00:31:07,760 carried out on the Exchequer when it spends money. 515 00:31:08,160 --> 00:31:11,000 And there's a lot of worries about what's happening to the 516 00:31:11,000 --> 00:31:13,120 money. And then there's also a third 517 00:31:13,120 --> 00:31:16,360 figure involved in this, Sir Richard Lyons, who is, in spite 518 00:31:16,360 --> 00:31:20,280 of his English sounding name, is Flemish, and he is very much 519 00:31:20,280 --> 00:31:24,680 involved with Latimer. And they are believed to be 520 00:31:24,920 --> 00:31:28,600 acting fraudulently in in particular with regard to the 521 00:31:28,600 --> 00:31:31,040 loans that the Crown raises. They're lining their own 522 00:31:31,040 --> 00:31:35,320 pockets. And in 1376 Parliament meets, 523 00:31:35,320 --> 00:31:39,520 this is known as the Good Parliament and they go after the 524 00:31:39,520 --> 00:31:43,760 King's favourites and the the administration is forced into 525 00:31:43,760 --> 00:31:46,600 making concessions. So Alice Perez gets banned from 526 00:31:46,600 --> 00:31:50,680 court. Latimer and Lyons are sentenced 527 00:31:50,800 --> 00:31:55,680 to forfeiture and imprisonment. And the man who is at this stage 528 00:31:55,680 --> 00:31:59,800 seen as being the most powerful man in the administration and 529 00:31:59,800 --> 00:32:04,200 was is John of Gaunt, who is Edward the Third's becomes 530 00:32:04,200 --> 00:32:06,240 Edward the Third's eldest surviving son. 531 00:32:06,680 --> 00:32:10,160 And Gaunt is a very controversial figure. 532 00:32:10,840 --> 00:32:14,600 He is suspected after Edward the Third's death by a lot of people 533 00:32:14,600 --> 00:32:17,120 of having designs on the throne for himself. 534 00:32:17,600 --> 00:32:23,400 But he's also seen as being behind these concessions to the 535 00:32:23,400 --> 00:32:27,000 good Parliament, which are then revoked by him. 536 00:32:27,240 --> 00:32:31,000 And he then becomes vindictive and goes after the people, 537 00:32:31,200 --> 00:32:34,040 particularly in Parliament, who he saw as being behind these 538 00:32:34,040 --> 00:32:37,800 moves to constrain what he sees as the royal prerogative. 539 00:32:38,240 --> 00:32:42,160 And so Perez is allowed to return to the bedside of the 540 00:32:42,160 --> 00:32:47,840 Edward the Third. Lions and Latimer are freed, and 541 00:32:47,840 --> 00:32:52,640 Gaunt also goes after the people who he thinks have been who who 542 00:32:52,640 --> 00:32:57,200 have been behind this. I mentioned that the King's 543 00:32:57,200 --> 00:33:01,280 uncle, John of Gaunt was particularly hated and 544 00:33:01,280 --> 00:33:04,600 especially by Londoners. Why was that? 545 00:33:05,240 --> 00:33:08,960 Well, Gaunt goes after the good Parliament and he's forced to 546 00:33:08,960 --> 00:33:11,080 concede to them. He goes after the what he 547 00:33:11,080 --> 00:33:14,480 regards as the perpetrators of the opposition to the Crown. 548 00:33:14,800 --> 00:33:18,040 And the opposition is partly from Londoners, but it's also, 549 00:33:18,040 --> 00:33:20,440 in his eyes, partly the result of a lot of clerics. 550 00:33:20,840 --> 00:33:24,840 And the two come become combined in the figure of Wickliffe, who 551 00:33:24,840 --> 00:33:29,400 is the leader of the Lollards. And as I say, Gaunt blames a lot 552 00:33:29,400 --> 00:33:31,320 of the bishops for what what's gone on. 553 00:33:31,320 --> 00:33:34,920 And Lollard Deep, headed by Wickliffe, is a useful tool for 554 00:33:34,920 --> 00:33:37,920 him in this because Wickliffe argues that the church should 555 00:33:38,000 --> 00:33:41,000 give up its wealth. And this is music to Gaunt's 556 00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:44,160 ears. And one of the things that Gaunt 557 00:33:44,160 --> 00:33:49,200 does is that Witcliffe is put on trial by Courtney, the Bishop of 558 00:33:49,200 --> 00:33:53,320 London in Saint Paul's. And Gaunt very ostentatiously 559 00:33:53,640 --> 00:33:57,680 breaks into Saint Paul's and whisks Cliff away. 560 00:33:58,440 --> 00:34:03,640 And in addition to roniming up against the church, Gaunt also 561 00:34:03,800 --> 00:34:07,800 moves against other people. So he moves against the speaker 562 00:34:07,800 --> 00:34:11,199 of the Parliament called De la Mer, who is held without charge 563 00:34:11,199 --> 00:34:13,639 at Nottingham Castle. But as already mentioned, he 564 00:34:13,639 --> 00:34:17,600 also dislikes the what he sees as the London merchants. 565 00:34:18,040 --> 00:34:23,639 And he immediately after Wickliffe is did they have this, 566 00:34:23,639 --> 00:34:26,080 this altercation between him and the Bishop of London over 567 00:34:26,080 --> 00:34:28,280 Wickliffe. Gaunt immediately after that 568 00:34:28,280 --> 00:34:30,000 threatens the liberties of London. 569 00:34:30,280 --> 00:34:33,639 And in particular he proposes that the Marshall and the 570 00:34:33,639 --> 00:34:37,719 Marshall is an official of the court, His jurisdiction as a 571 00:34:37,719 --> 00:34:40,639 judicial authority should be extended over the city. 572 00:34:40,920 --> 00:34:44,560 And he also wants there to be a royal governor appointed in 573 00:34:44,560 --> 00:34:48,480 place of the mayor. This provokes a minor riot, a 574 00:34:48,480 --> 00:34:52,600 mob attack the Savoyed Palace and they're going after Gaunt 575 00:34:52,600 --> 00:34:57,040 and they hear that Gaunt is away dining elsewhere in London at 576 00:34:57,040 --> 00:34:59,640 the home of one of his servants, Sir John Deepra. 577 00:34:59,880 --> 00:35:04,280 And Deepra's house is then attacked and Gaunt is forced to 578 00:35:04,280 --> 00:35:08,320 flee and he flees. He rose across the Thames and on 579 00:35:08,320 --> 00:35:20,120 to his sister in And one of the interesting little detail for 580 00:35:20,120 --> 00:35:23,360 London is this, that one of the Black Prince's main residents 581 00:35:23,360 --> 00:35:25,280 was at Kennington, the other one was instead. 582 00:35:25,960 --> 00:35:28,600 So this there's this big problem with between Gaunt and the 583 00:35:28,600 --> 00:35:31,040 Londoners. Eventually the alien King Edward 584 00:35:31,040 --> 00:35:35,560 the Third summons the Londoners and Gaunt to his palace at Sheen 585 00:35:35,560 --> 00:35:41,000 to effect and a reconciliation between them and Gaunt demands 586 00:35:41,000 --> 00:35:45,240 as the price of his pardon the erection in Cheapside. 587 00:35:45,320 --> 00:35:49,600 So this is the main thoroughfare in the western part of the city 588 00:35:49,880 --> 00:35:51,640 that leads up to Saint Paul's Cathedral. 589 00:35:52,160 --> 00:35:55,640 He demands the erection of a marble pillar which will be 590 00:35:55,640 --> 00:35:59,440 surmounted by his coat of arms, and this is probably a reaction 591 00:35:59,440 --> 00:36:02,640 to the fact that his coat of arms has been defaced throughout 592 00:36:02,640 --> 00:36:06,720 the city. He also demands that the mayor 593 00:36:06,720 --> 00:36:11,600 and Alderman make a penitential procession to Saint Paul's and 594 00:36:11,600 --> 00:36:14,680 that those of their number who had colluded in the disturbances 595 00:36:14,840 --> 00:36:20,240 should be dismissed. Now he gets his apology and a 596 00:36:20,240 --> 00:36:25,680 few officers of the corporation are dismissed, but the 597 00:36:25,680 --> 00:36:28,960 corporation refuses. The corporation is the word for 598 00:36:28,960 --> 00:36:32,960 the council, headed by the Mayor and the Alderman refuses to 599 00:36:33,000 --> 00:36:36,640 abase itself publicly in the manner that Gaunt demands. 600 00:36:36,840 --> 00:36:40,400 So there's a kind of stand off. But the importance is that this 601 00:36:40,400 --> 00:36:45,400 leaves a legacy of bitterness between Gaunt and the Londoners 602 00:36:45,520 --> 00:36:48,280 in particular. And as we shall see, the 603 00:36:48,280 --> 00:36:51,000 Londoners will return to the Savoy Palace. 604 00:36:51,000 --> 00:36:54,000 It's all happening, isn't it? Now, you mentioned that the 605 00:36:54,040 --> 00:36:57,200 insurrection begins in Kent and Essex. 606 00:36:57,520 --> 00:37:01,280 Can you outline a bit more about what happened exactly? 607 00:37:01,920 --> 00:37:04,320 Yes. So ahead of the imposition of 608 00:37:04,320 --> 00:37:08,400 the new poll tax, 2 new figures are brought into the 609 00:37:08,400 --> 00:37:10,240 administration. So there's a lot of opposition 610 00:37:10,240 --> 00:37:12,440 to the administration's new faces have brought in. 611 00:37:12,680 --> 00:37:15,640 And as mentioned previously, what the key figure here is 612 00:37:15,840 --> 00:37:19,160 Chancellor Sudbury, who is the Archbishop of Canterbury and 613 00:37:19,160 --> 00:37:21,960 he's appointed in January 13 eighties chancellor. 614 00:37:22,320 --> 00:37:25,480 And then there is a new Treasurer, Sir Robert Hales, who 615 00:37:25,480 --> 00:37:31,280 is appointed in February 1381. And he has again a very 616 00:37:31,280 --> 00:37:35,880 important London connection because he is the prior of the 617 00:37:35,920 --> 00:37:39,600 Order of Saint John in Clarkenwell. 618 00:37:39,920 --> 00:37:43,960 And as mentioned earlier, one of the problems for the government 619 00:37:43,960 --> 00:37:47,880 is that there is massive tax evasion and the number of those 620 00:37:47,880 --> 00:37:52,720 registered to pay the poll tax, the third poll tax, had fallen 621 00:37:52,960 --> 00:37:58,480 by 450,000 since the poll tax, the first poll tax in 1377. 622 00:37:59,280 --> 00:38:03,840 And what is going on is that a lot of females, so in particular 623 00:38:03,840 --> 00:38:07,800 unmarried females and widows are being concealed. 624 00:38:07,800 --> 00:38:11,080 They're just disappearing. And young women people are 625 00:38:11,080 --> 00:38:16,000 saying, no, she's not over 15. And the people doing the evasion 626 00:38:16,080 --> 00:38:18,840 would need the collusion of the sub collectors. 627 00:38:18,840 --> 00:38:22,520 So you can sense that the opposition is very widespread. 628 00:38:22,880 --> 00:38:26,680 And in March to repeat commissioners are sent out to 629 00:38:26,680 --> 00:38:30,320 search for those who are liable to pay the tax and they inspect 630 00:38:30,320 --> 00:38:33,720 the returns of the tax collectors. 631 00:38:34,040 --> 00:38:37,560 And you can imagine that the the tax is resented, but this 632 00:38:37,560 --> 00:38:40,760 process is resented because it's very intrusive. 633 00:38:40,760 --> 00:38:45,760 It's people collecting evidence on you and in the second week of 634 00:38:45,760 --> 00:38:49,440 June trouble breaks out. What happens is that at the end 635 00:38:49,440 --> 00:38:53,720 of May a Commission to assess the evasion of the poll tax in 636 00:38:53,800 --> 00:38:58,400 Essex, led by John Brampton MP, and who is also a Justice of the 637 00:38:58,400 --> 00:39:00,960 peace, goes to Brentford in Essex. 638 00:39:00,960 --> 00:39:03,840 And he summons the inhabitants of three villages. 639 00:39:04,280 --> 00:39:08,920 And he summons them to appear and to account for the deficits 640 00:39:08,920 --> 00:39:10,520 in their accounts. And they refuse. 641 00:39:10,880 --> 00:39:13,800 And his Sergeant at Arms attempt to arrest them. 642 00:39:14,160 --> 00:39:17,240 And all of them, that is Brampton and the Sergeant at 643 00:39:17,240 --> 00:39:21,160 arms, are driven from Brentwood forcibly and Brampton flees to 644 00:39:21,160 --> 00:39:23,880 London. The Chief Justice of Common 645 00:39:23,880 --> 00:39:27,480 Pleas, Sir Robert Belknap is then empowered by the Council to 646 00:39:27,760 --> 00:39:29,360 tried. The insurgency sparked the 647 00:39:29,360 --> 00:39:31,160 revolt and he sends out a Commission. 648 00:39:31,160 --> 00:39:34,880 It's called a Commission of Trail Baston, an itinerant court 649 00:39:34,880 --> 00:39:38,520 to tackle the serious offences and he attempts to open a 650 00:39:38,520 --> 00:39:41,720 hearing at Brentford. But he is set upon and sent 651 00:39:41,720 --> 00:39:45,440 away. And within days of this attack, 652 00:39:45,480 --> 00:39:49,400 Brentwood disobedience breaks out all over Essex. 653 00:39:49,680 --> 00:39:54,400 Trouble also breaks out in Kent on the 2nd of June and one of 654 00:39:54,400 --> 00:39:57,640 the things that provokes in Kent is an interesting example 655 00:39:57,640 --> 00:40:00,080 because it's to do with serfdom. So I'm saying there are hardly 656 00:40:00,080 --> 00:40:03,680 any serfs in Kent, but there is a man called Robert Belling who 657 00:40:03,680 --> 00:40:06,720 is claimed as a serf by Sir Simon Burley. 658 00:40:07,080 --> 00:40:10,880 And Sir Simon Burley is one of Richard the Second's close 659 00:40:11,080 --> 00:40:13,720 confidence. He had been the young Princess 660 00:40:13,720 --> 00:40:16,880 Tutor, and Burley sends sergeants his arms to arrest 661 00:40:16,880 --> 00:40:20,840 this man Belling. And he is arrested and sent to 662 00:40:20,840 --> 00:40:24,920 Rochester Castle. And the rebels, first of all, 663 00:40:24,920 --> 00:40:28,880 they set out for Maidstone, They get into the castle there and 664 00:40:28,880 --> 00:40:31,480 then they get into Rochester. And this is one of the patterns 665 00:40:31,480 --> 00:40:33,960 of them that you have these peasants rising. 666 00:40:34,080 --> 00:40:36,840 So they're able to get into these castles seemingly easily. 667 00:40:36,960 --> 00:40:40,440 And this must be collusion on the parts of people inside those 668 00:40:40,440 --> 00:40:42,280 castles. And one of the interesting 669 00:40:42,280 --> 00:40:45,600 figures in the whole revolt is rather ambiguous figure who is 670 00:40:45,600 --> 00:40:48,600 Sir John Newton, who is the constable of Rochester who 671 00:40:48,600 --> 00:40:51,560 surrenders the castle. Now according to Fossar, who is 672 00:40:51,560 --> 00:40:55,080 not a cleric but is a chronicler, this man Newton was 673 00:40:55,080 --> 00:41:00,080 spared on condition that he joins the rebels ranks and that 674 00:41:00,080 --> 00:41:03,600 this accounts for his presence on the March the rebels towards 675 00:41:03,600 --> 00:41:05,880 London. It could well be, but that might 676 00:41:05,880 --> 00:41:08,720 well be a sort of convenient justification after the events 677 00:41:08,720 --> 00:41:10,600 have occurred on the part of Newton's. 678 00:41:11,320 --> 00:41:13,560 And it's after the fall of Rochester Castle that we get the 679 00:41:13,560 --> 00:41:16,360 first mention of Watch Tyler. And he appears in something 680 00:41:16,360 --> 00:41:19,920 called the Anonymal Chronicle. And it's under his leadership 681 00:41:19,920 --> 00:41:22,040 that the men March on Canterbury. 682 00:41:23,160 --> 00:41:27,800 And the coordination of the rebels in Essex and Kent is 683 00:41:27,800 --> 00:41:32,640 probably down to Tyler. And then one interesting event 684 00:41:32,640 --> 00:41:35,360 that occurs in Kent is that there's a man called Abel Kerr. 685 00:41:35,680 --> 00:41:42,040 And he leads a band from Erith to Lessness Abbey and he forces 686 00:41:42,040 --> 00:41:45,040 the Abbot there to swear to be of their company. 687 00:41:45,360 --> 00:41:49,080 And Kerr then moves off to Essex for reinforcements. 688 00:41:49,480 --> 00:41:52,680 And from this point on was the movement of these Kent rebels. 689 00:41:52,680 --> 00:41:55,640 And the Essex rebels mirror each other very closely. 690 00:41:55,840 --> 00:41:59,280 And we're obviously doing our London history podcast. 691 00:41:59,360 --> 00:42:02,560 Lesnar's Abbey is one of the sites of the rebellions that you 692 00:42:02,560 --> 00:42:04,840 can go and see. Also interesting for lot for 693 00:42:04,840 --> 00:42:10,600 lots of other reasons as well. On June 11th, these groups set 694 00:42:10,600 --> 00:42:14,320 out for London. Yeah, so they, so they came via 695 00:42:14,320 --> 00:42:17,680 Blackheath, didn't they? Yes, they reach Blackheath the 696 00:42:17,680 --> 00:42:19,320 following day. We're talking about the Kentish 697 00:42:19,320 --> 00:42:22,040 rebels, the party advancing on the South side of the Thames. 698 00:42:22,440 --> 00:42:29,320 And Blackheath is a large open space now in southeast London. 699 00:42:30,000 --> 00:42:34,640 And the city centre delegation, this delegation is aimed at 700 00:42:34,640 --> 00:42:37,320 getting them to disperse. It doesn't succeed. 701 00:42:37,560 --> 00:42:42,480 It's headed up by Alderman plus Bishop of Rochester and the 702 00:42:42,480 --> 00:42:45,800 following day, 13th of June, which is Corpus Christi Day. 703 00:42:45,920 --> 00:42:48,480 I mentioned that because obviously when they 704 00:42:48,480 --> 00:42:52,280 contemporaries are talking about dates, they don't say, don't 705 00:42:52,280 --> 00:42:55,000 tend to say the 13th of June, that they would say Corpus 706 00:42:55,000 --> 00:42:56,880 Christi Day. So the 13th of June, Corpus 707 00:42:56,880 --> 00:42:59,840 Christi Day. Richard the Second sets out for 708 00:42:59,840 --> 00:43:02,280 his first meetings from the rebels and he sets out on a 709 00:43:02,280 --> 00:43:05,920 barge and he meets them probably at Deptford. 710 00:43:06,440 --> 00:43:09,640 And the idea, I think originally is that the king will get off 711 00:43:09,640 --> 00:43:12,400 his barge and he'll meet with the rebels and he'll talk to 712 00:43:12,400 --> 00:43:14,640 them. But the people on the barge with 713 00:43:14,640 --> 00:43:18,360 him are nervous that the crowd on the shore is just so large 714 00:43:18,360 --> 00:43:22,400 that they fear for his safety. And so the rebels send the king 715 00:43:22,400 --> 00:43:26,560 a list of their demands, and their demands are a list of the 716 00:43:26,560 --> 00:43:29,960 royal councillors who they would like to be executed. 717 00:43:30,400 --> 00:43:33,920 And the negotiations come to an end without conclusion and 718 00:43:33,920 --> 00:43:37,320 Richard returns to the tower. Now, this business about the 719 00:43:38,360 --> 00:43:41,760 advisors that they want to be executed is important because at 720 00:43:41,760 --> 00:43:45,920 no stage throughout the Rising do the rebels target the king. 721 00:43:45,920 --> 00:43:49,080 This is often when historians write about this or talk about 722 00:43:49,080 --> 00:43:51,600 this, they will draw up the parallel with the Russian 723 00:43:51,600 --> 00:43:55,480 Revolution in 1905 when the peasants revolt and they they 724 00:43:55,480 --> 00:43:57,800 can't believe that the tsar would do anything wrong. 725 00:43:58,120 --> 00:44:01,520 And similarly with Rich the Second, it's not him, he's the 726 00:44:01,520 --> 00:44:05,720 king, it's the people around him who the rebels are targeting. 727 00:44:06,040 --> 00:44:09,680 And throughout they maintain loyalty to the king that they 728 00:44:09,680 --> 00:44:12,360 articulate their loyalty to Richard the Second. 729 00:44:13,120 --> 00:44:18,080 So Richard returns to the Tower and then the rebels get to 730 00:44:18,080 --> 00:44:22,160 London. The rebels have just entered 731 00:44:22,160 --> 00:44:26,560 London and the revolt is truly on its way and we are going to 732 00:44:26,560 --> 00:44:29,560 do a Part 2. Aren't we in about all the 733 00:44:29,560 --> 00:44:34,400 London activity that happens during the summer of 1381? 734 00:44:35,200 --> 00:44:39,280 So while you're waiting for the next episode after this one, you 735 00:44:39,280 --> 00:44:42,800 can read a number of blog posts that are related to what we've 736 00:44:42,800 --> 00:44:46,480 been talking about. First off is about Marshall C, 737 00:44:46,640 --> 00:44:49,800 the history of the Marshall C and how that became Marshall C 738 00:44:49,800 --> 00:44:54,440 Prison with links with Dickens. Also, there's a blog post about 739 00:44:54,440 --> 00:44:57,880 the five Alderman. There is also a blog post about 740 00:44:57,880 --> 00:45:01,520 John of Gaunt, Savoy Palace and also if you're a bit more 741 00:45:01,520 --> 00:45:05,640 interested in the human aspect then Alice Ferris the mistress 742 00:45:05,640 --> 00:45:09,080 of Edward the 1st and the Power and the scandal of the city in 743 00:45:09,080 --> 00:45:12,160 1376. So plenty for you to be getting 744 00:45:12,160 --> 00:45:13,640 on with. Thank you, Ian. 745 00:45:13,960 --> 00:45:14,640 My pleasure, Hazel.