The English Peasant Revolt
1381
from Froissart's Chronicles
It is the custom in England, as in several other countries,
for the nobles to have strong powers over their men
and to hold them in serfdom: that is, that by right and
custom they have to till the lands of the gentry, reap the
corn and bring it to the big house, put it in the barn,
thresh and winnow it; mow the hay and carry it to the house,
cut logs and bring them up, and all such forced tasks;
all this the men must do by way of serfage to the masters.
In England there is much greater number than elsewhere of
such men who are obliged to serve the prelates and the nobles.
And in the countries of Kent, Essex, Sussex and Bedford
in particular, there are more than in the whole of
the rest of England.
These bad people in the counties just mentioned began to rebel
because, they said, they were held too much in subjection,
and when the world began there had been no serfs and could not
be, unless they had rebelled against their lord, as Lucifer
did against God; but they were not of that stature, being neither
angels nor spirits, but men formed in the image of their masters,
and they were treated like animals. This was a thing they could
no longer endure, wishing rather to be all one and the same;
and if they worked for their masters, they wanted to have wages
or it. In these machinations they had been greatly encouraged
originally by a priest of Kent called John Ball, who had been
imprisoned several times for his reckless words by the Archbishop
of Canterbury. This John Ball had the habit on Sundays after
mass, when everyone was coming out of church, of going to
the cloisters or the graveyard, assembling the people round him
and preaching thus:
"Good people, things cannot go right in England and
never will, until goods are held in common and there are
no more villeins and gentlefolk, but we are all one and the
same. In what way are are those whom we call lords greater
masters than ourselves? How have they deserved it? Why do
they hold us in bondage? If we all spring from a single
father and mother, Adam and Eve, how can they claim or prove
that they are lords more than us, except by making us produce
and grow the wealth which they spend? They are clad in velvet
and camlet lined with squirrel and ermine, while we go dressed in
coarse cloth. They have the wines, the spices and the good
bread: we have the rye, the husks and the straw, and we
drink water. They have shelter and ease in their fine manors,
and we have hardship and toil, the wind and the rain in the
fields. And from us must come, from our labour, the things
whcih keep them in luxury. We are called serfs and beaten
if we are slow in our service to them, yet we have no sovereign
lord we can complain to, none to hear us and do us justice.
Let us go to the king--he is young--and show him how we are
oppressed, and tell him that we want things to be changed,
or else we will change them ourselves. If we go in good earnest and
all together, very many people who are called serfs and are
held in subjection will follow us to get their freedom.
And when the king sees and hears us, he will remedy the evil,
either willingly or otherwise.". . .
The Archbishop of Canterbury, being informed of all this,
had John Ball arrested and put in prison, where he kept him
for two or three months as a punishment. It would have been better
if he had condemmned him to life imprisonment on the first
occasion, or had him put to death, then to do what he did; but
he had great scruples about putting him to death an set him
free; and when John Ball was out of prison, he went on with his
intrigues as before. The things he was doing and saying came
to the ears of the comon people of London, who were envious of
the nobles and rich. These began saying that the country was badly
governed and was being robbed of its wealth by those who called
themselves noblemen. So these wicked men in London started to become
disaffected and to rebel and they sent word to the people in the
counties mentioned to come boldly to London with all their
followers, when they would find the city open and the
common people on their side. They could then so work on the King
that there would be no more serfs in England.
These promises incited the people of Kent, Essex, Sussex,
Bedford and the neighbouring districts and they set off and went
towards London. They were a ful sixty thousand and their
chief captain was one Wat Tyler. With him as his companions
were Jack Straw and John Ball. These three were the leaders
and Wat Tyler was the greatest of them. He was a tiler of roofs,
and a wicked and nasty fellow he was. . . .
They got the knights and nobles into their power--such as
the Lord of Morlais, a great baron, Sir Stephen Hales
and Sir Stephen de Cosington--and compelled them to
go with them.
Just consider what devilry was abroad. If their plans had
succeeded, they would have destroyed all the nobility of
England; and afterwards, in other nations, all the common people
would have rebelled; they had been inspired and and influenced
by the people of Ghent and Flanders who rebelled against their
lord. And in that very year the Parisians did the same, making
themselves long iron hammers to the number of over twenty
thousand. But first to continue with the English rebels. . .
When that multitude which had halted at Rochester had acheived their
purpose there, they crossed the river (Medway) and came to
Dartford, still relentlessly pursuing their course of destroying
the houses of lawyers and judges whenever they passed near them.
They cut off the heads of a number of men and went on to within
about twelve miles of London, where they halted on a hill known
as Blackheath. And as they went they said they stood for the
King and the noble commons of England. . . .
When those people saw they would obtain nothing more, they were
aflame with fury. They went back to the hill where the main body
was and reported what had been said to them and that the King had
gone back to the tower. The whole mass of them began shouting
together: "To London! Straight to London!" They started off and swept
down towards the city, ransacking and destroying the houses of
abbots, lawyers and court officials, and came to the immediate
outskirts, which are fine and extensive. They levelled several
fine buildings and, in particular, the King's prisons, which are
called Marshalseas, setting free all the prisoners inside. They
committed many outrages in the suburbs and, when they reached
the bridge, they began to threaten the Londoners because they
had closed its gates. They said they would set fire to all the
suburbs and then take London by storm, burning and destroying
it. The common people of London, many of whom were on their side,
assembled together and said: "Why not let those good people come
into the town? They are our own people and they are doing all this
to help us." So the gates had to be opened and all those famished
men entered the town and rushed into the houses which had stocks of
provisions. Nothing was refused them and everyone made haste to
welcome them in and set out food and drink to appease them. After that,
their leaders John Ball, Jack Straw and Wat Tyler, with more than
thirty thousand men, went straight through London to the Palace of
the Savoy, a very fine building on the Thames as you go towards the
King's Palace of Westminster, and belonging to the Duke of Lancaster
[John of Gaunt, the king's uncle].
They quickly got inside and killed
the guards, and then sent it up in flames. Having committed this
outrage, they went on to the palace of the Hospitallers of Rhodes,
known as St. John of Clerkenwell, and burnt it down, house, church,
hospital and everything. Besides this, they went from street to street,
killing all the Flemings they found in churches, chapels and houses.
None was spared. They broke into many houses belonging to Lombards
and robbed them openly, no one daring to resist them. In the town they
killed a wealthy man called Richard Lyon, whose servant Wat Tyler
had once been during the wars in France. On one occasion Richard
Lyon had beaten his servant and Wat Tyler remembered it. He
led his men to him, and had his head cut off in front of him, and
then had it stuck on a lance and carried through the streets. So
these wicked men went raging about in wild frenzy, committing
many excesses on that Thursday throughout London.