Summer of Blood: The Peasants’ Revolt of 1381

by Dan Jones

Skeet, Thomas 187, 188

  Smithfield, London 100, 138, 139, 141-7, 149-54, 159, 160, 162, 168, 170, 176, 190, 200, 203, 205

  Somenour, Richard 127, 134

  Somerset 3, 191

  South-East of England: army in 20, 57; low morale within 20; population in, 1380 43; rebellion spreads throughout 136, 138, 160, 162-6, 171; tradition of rebellion within 208 see also under individual county, town and village

  Southey, Robert 199, 210, 211

  Southwark, Surrey 1, 55, 72, 74, 78, 85-90, 108, 118, 133, 144

  Spicer, Clement 58

  St Albans, Hertfordshire 105-7, 160, 162-6, 172, 199, 200

  St Andrew’s Priory, Northampton 25, 27

  St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London 139, 144, 151, 154

  St James Garlickhithe church, London 130, 131

  St Magnus church, London 86, 88

  St Martin-in-the-Vintry church, London 130

  St Martin-le-Grand church, London 97, 98

  St Mary Arches church, London 162-3

  St Paul’s Cathedral, London 34, 89, 128

  Standish, Sir Ralph 151

  Starr, Marjery 180

  Statute of Labourers, 1349 14-16, 21

  Statute of Winchester, 1285 147

  Steeple Morden, Cambridgeshire 181

  Stow, John 208-9

  the Strand, London 35, 89, 93, 96

  Straw, Jack 8, 73, 82, 85, 86, 105, 107, 119, 125, 162, 200

  Sudbury, archbishop of Canterbury, chancellor, Simon 60; death 121-4, 126-7, 134, 154, 164, 171, 199, 204, 210; John Ball and 61, 118-19; parliament, Northampton, 1380 27, 28, 29, 30; rebels target 64, 74-5, 79, 83, 84, 108, 116, 117-19, 121-4, 126-7; resigns chancellorship 78-9; Richard’s permission to seek out ‘traitors’ condemns 116, 117-19, 121-4, 126-7; Rotherhithe 83, 84, 101

  Suffolk 50, 113, 136, 167, 177, 183, 186, 190, 192-3

  Sussex 3, 161

  Sybil, Walter 86

  taxation: of clergy 31-2; Essex, reaction within to poll tax, 1380 43-7; evasion of 22, 43, 45-7; of middle orders 19, 29; parliament and 19, 21, 22; poll tax, 1377 21, 22; poll tax, 1378 2, 30; poll tax, 1379 2, 22, 30, 31-2, 54; poll tax, 1380 2, 30-1, 32, 40, 42-7; poll tax 1990 3; tax-collecting commissions 32, 42-7, 49, 51, 57, 64, 84, 119, 197; on trade 22, 26, 28, 207

  Tebbe, John 64

  Tece, John 64

  Thames River, London 50, 52, 69-70, 80, 89, 94, 116, 133

  Thomas of Woodstock, earl of

  Buckingham 20, 22, 27-8, 29, 32, 35, 43, 70, 71, 189, 192, 195, 196, 197

  Thorpe Market, Norfolk 186-7

  Tongue, William 86

  Topclyve, William 60

  Tower Hill, London 100, 111, 116, 118, 120, 122, 124, 129, 163, 164, 167, 210

  Tower of London 1, 35, 69, 70, 71, 72, 75, 78, 79, 82, 88, 97, 100, 102, 103, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 116, 117-19, 120, 121-2, 128, 129, 146, 153, 155, 161, 163, 167, 196-7, 206

  Tresilian, Robert 190, 199, 200, 205

  Trewman, William 113

  Trunch, John 187, 188

  Tyler, Wat 1, 8, 125, 136, 137, 163, 166, 178, 181, 192, 207, 208, 211; on Blackheath 70, 72, 73, 74, 75, 80; Canterbury, attack upon 62, 63, 64, 65; charisma 184; death 151, 152, 153, 154, 165, 168, 170, 177; as a general 61, 62; instructions to followers on nature of their conduct 95; John Ball and 61, 62; leadership qualities 61; London, advance upon and entry into 66, 86, 87, 88, 89, 95; Maidstone, leads raid on prison 61; Mile End meeting, not present at 114, 119; radical 114, 119; representations of 199, 209, 210; Richard II, meetings with 70, 72, 73, 74, 75, 80, 82, 83, 84, 85, 141, 144-7, 149-51; Rotherhithe, meeting with king at 82, 83, 84, 85; rumour of intention to burn down London 137, 138; Smithfield, meeting with king at 141, 144-7, 149-51, 152, 153, 154

  Tyrell, Thomas 58

  Ufford, earl of Suffolk, William 173, 184, 190

  Usk, Adam 201

  village structure, English, 14th century 10-17

  Vintry, London 130, 131 Vox Clamantis (‘A voice crying’) (Gower) 7-8, 9

  Waldegrave, Richard 203

  Wallace, William 141-2

  Walsingham, Thomas 52, 57, 69, 105, 111, 117, 132, 149, 160, 183, 194-5, 196, 209, 210

  Waltham, Essex 190, 193, 195, 196

  Walworth, Mayor of London, Sir William 71, 86-7, 88, 113; Clerkenwell Field 155, 159-60; counsels king to attack rebels 108, 109, 110, 111, 128, 137, 138, 139; John of Gaunt and 29, 35, 38, 39, 40; knighted 155, 159-60; loans to government 29; Mile End meeting with rebels, role in 120; powers of retribution conferred upon 159-60, 161; private armed forces within London 100-1, 138; retribution upon rebels, role in 162, 164, 166, 175, 176, 188, 189; Smithfield meeting with rebels, role in 142, 143, 144, 145, 151, 152, 153, 154; war treasurer 29, 35, 161; Wat Tyler, kills 151, 152, 153

  Ware, Hugh 129

  ‘Wat Tyler’ (Southey) 199, 210, 211

  Welle, Adam atte 90

  Westminster Abbey, London 35, 96, 128, 132-9, 143, 162

  Westminster Chronicler 175, 191, 201, 215, 219

  Westminster, London 35, 94, 96, 125, 126, 127, 128, 132-9, 142, 143, 162, 203

  Whitsun, 1381 42, 49-56

  Wightman, William 178

  Wigmore, William 180

  William the Conqueror 29

  Winchester 146-7

  wool trade 28, 41

  Wrawe, John 131, 166, 171, 177, 178, 181, 186, 190, 197, 200

  Wyclif, John 32, 34, 118, 199

  Wykeham, William 13

  York 167-70, 178, 191-2

  Yorkshire 3, 167-70, 173

  Zouche, Hugh de la 193

  A NOTE ON SOURCES

  There are many colourful sources relating to the Peasants’ Revolt. The invaluable modern compendium, which brings together a splendid cross-section of them with helpful notes on context, is The Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 by R. B. Dobson (2nd edition, London-most recently reprinted in 2002, though my copy dates from 1983). It remains the best scholarly introduction to the rebellion, its causes and its aftermath. The bibliography is also the best guide to the primary and secondary literature on 1381, although naturally it does not cover a few publications of recent years.

  To this we should add the incomplete Le soulévement des travailleurs d’Angleterre en 1381 by André Réville (Paris, 1898), which first printed many important documents concerning the rebellion. Unfortunately this is hard to obtain outside the large copyright libraries and has never been translated into English. Similarly useful, and similarly hard to find, is Andrew Prescott’s meticulous ‘The Judicial Records of the Rising of 1381’ (University of London PhD thesis, 1984). The hard copy in the British Library was missing at the time of writing, so it can only be consulted on microfilm, or by application to the University of London.

  I have consulted numerous other works relating to the revolt-what follows is a selection of the most interesting and useful, arranged roughly in the order that they have been used in this book.

  The records of the medieval parliaments have been brilliantly transcribed, translated, arranged and explained in The Parliament Rolls of Medieval England, edited by Chris Given-Wilson. I have consulted the electronic version of the rolls, which was released as a single-volume CD-ROM in 2005. It can be purchased at sd-editions.com/PROME/. For an explanation of how labour laws, parliaments and public policy were related, see ‘Service, Serfdom and English Labour Legislation, 1350-1500’, by Chris Given-Wilson, in Concepts and Patterns of Service in the Later Middle Ages, by Anne Curry and Elizabeth Matthew (eds) (Woodbridge, 2000).

  The complex politics of London, including John of Gaunt’s running feud with the city’s merchant oligarchs and the city’s rabble, are described in The Turbulent London of Richard II, by R. Bird (London, 1949). The case notes regarding the Janus Imperial murder, which I have described here to illustrate the viciousness of London politics and Gaunt’s ill-considered use of his executive power to pursue his personal battles, can be found in Select Cases in the Court of King’s Bench, vol. VII, by G. O. Sayles (ed.). An unp
ublished article, ‘The Murder of Janus Imperial: Law and Politics in London before the Peasants Revolt’, by D. G. Jones (2002), explains the case, and can be obtained by direct enquiry via my website: www.summerofblood.com.

  The early, rural stages of the revolt are murky. The monastic chroniclers (of whom more below) are all either vague or confused about the revolt’s origins. Several articles, however, have been published in an attempt to piece together a coherent narrative of late May and early June 1381. The best is ‘The Organization and Achievements of the Peasants of Kent and Essex in 1381’, by Nicholas Brooks, published in Studies in Medieval History presented to R. H. C. Davis, by H. Mayr-Harting and R. I. Moore (eds) (1985).

  For snapshots of the rebellion in Kent, ‘The Great Rebellion in Kent of 1381 illustrated from the Public Records’ by W E. Flaherty, in Archaeologia Cantiana 3 (1860), is a useful compilation of legal records from Wat Tyler’s own county. The Essex equivalent is ‘Essex in Insurrection, 1381’, by J. A. Sparvel-Bayly, in Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, NS, 1 (Colchester, 1878). There have been more recent local studies of the south-east but these two allow the reader to engage directly with the legal records made directly after the revolt.

  None of the monastic chroniclers are very accurate when dealing with the early stages of the rebellion, but they can be (and have been) usefully cross-referenced to build up a narrative of the revolt in London. The best informed is the so-called ‘Anonimalle’ chronicler, whose identity is unclear, but who seems to have had the most privileged access to the royal court during the crisis of Corpus Christi weekend. Dobson prints much of the Anonimalle Chronicle in a better translation than appears in The Great Revolt of 1381, by Charles Oman (Oxford, 1906-my copy was published in London, 1989).

  The most entertaining of the chronicles is by Thomas Walsingham, the St Albans chronicler. The St Albans Chronicle: The Chronica Maiora of Thomas Walsingham. Volume I: 1376–1394, by John Taylor, Wendy R. Childs and Leslie Watkiss (eds and trans.) (Oxford, 2003) is the most recent edition. Walsingham is hysterically biased against the rebels, and he often frames set pieces from the revolt (such as the death of Sudbury and Despenser’s victory) as modern parallels to other great events from classical history and the times of the ancient Britons. But he was also an eyewitness to all of the events in St Albans and many of those in London. And his is the best illustration of the moral terror that gripped his class.

  Other important chroniclers are the Westminster chronicler and Henry Knighton. The versions I have used are The Westminster Chronicle 1381–1394, by L. C. Hector and Barbara F. Harvey (eds) (Oxford, 1982) and Knighton’s Chronicle 1337–1396, by G. H. Martin (ed.) (Oxford, 1995). Westminster adds useful details on the revolt in London; Knighton is the best source for Despenser’s role in subduing the rebellion. Finally, there is Jean Froissart, whose chronicle was most beautifully rendered into English by Lord Berners in The Chronicles of Froissart, by G. C. Macaulay (ed.) (London, 1895). Froissart is the most inventive of the chroniclers, but did seem to have good sources at the royal court. I have followed him most notably (and perhaps controversially) in identifying the rebels’ envoy to the Tower when they were at Blackheath as Sir John Newton, the keeper of Rochester Castle.

  Also useful in understanding events during the London riots is Memorials of London and London Life 1276–1419, by H. T. Riley (ed. and trans.) (London, 1868). More recently, so is ‘London in the Peasants’ Revolt: a portrait Gallery’, by A. J. Prescott, from the London Journal (1981). Revolt in London: 11th to 15th June 1381 (London, 1981), by C. M. Barron is another succinct version of the events in London, with additional background on London politics. For incidental material about London, its geography and its traditions, there are many useful sources, to which I have alluded in the footnotes. A couple of volumes can be usefully consulted for an introduction: Medieval London, by T. Baker (London, 1970), which provides much useful information about London’s architecture. I have also tried to emphasise the importance of the festive mood of Corpus Christi. Readers who wish to learn more should consult ‘Corpus Christi and Corpus Regni’, by M. Aston in Past and Present (1994) and, for more context, Corpus Christi: The Eucharist in Late Medieval Culture, by M. Rubin (Cambridge, 1991).

  For the rising in Norfolk, The Rising in East Anglia in 1381, by E. Powell (Cambridge, 1896), is still very useful. ‘The rising of 1381 in Suffolk: its origins and participants’, by C. Dyer, in Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History (1985), should be consulted for information on that county. For Cambridgeshire the Victoria County History of Cambridgeshire, vol. III, contains much detail on local politics that is unavailable elsewhere. I have used in this account the character of Bishop Despenser to draw the stories of those counties together in late June 1381. There is a short version of his life in print: Henry Despenser: The Fighting Bishop, by Richard Allington-Smith (Dereham, 2003). An important discussion of the letters of John Ball can be found in Writing and Rebellion: England in 1381, by Steven Justice (Berkeley, 1994). The best short description of the suppression of the revolt, which revises the idea that the government exercised much restraint in putting down the rebels is A. J. Prescott, ‘“The Hand of God”: the suppression of the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381’ in Nigel J. Morgan, (ed.), Prophecy, apocalypse and the day of doom: Proceedings of the 2000 Harlaxton Symposium (Harlaxton Medieval Studies, 12) (Donnington: Shaun Tyas, 2004).

  Other important accounts of the revolt include Bond Men Made Free, by R. Hilton (1973), the classic Marxist account of the rising, which sets it in its broader European context, and the six papers presented to the London conference of the Past and Present Society in 1981 collected under the title of The English Rising of 1381. For a short history of writing about the revolt, see L. M. Matheson, ‘The Peasants’ Revolt through Five Centuries of Rumour and Reporting’ in Studies in Philology, Spring 1992, No. 2. Examples of many of the texts described are to be found in Dobson, Peasants’ Revolt.

  The biographies of Wat Tyler and John Ball in the Dictionary of National Biography are good short surveys, although we are always likely to know tantalisingly little about both men. For their betters, including John of Gaunt, the London merchants Walworth, Brembre and Philipot, the earl of Salisbury, Simon Sudbury and so on, there are fuller biographies available in the DNB. I have consulted the extremely convenient online version.

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  First published in Great Britain by HarperPress in 2009

  Copyright © Dan Jones 2009

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