Peasant’s Revolt

Alternative transcript:

spread ideas to people that God Created equally and nobody should be rich or poor. He made people start to think that they shouldn't be in this situation and this angered people and they wanted to do Some thing about it. Ball was arrested for his ideas. was Religion - many priests started to preach that the Church exploiting the peasants by making people pay pardons for their sins Events [1381] 30th May → Peasants (Brentwood) refuse to pay poll tax and threaten to kill local tax collecter. Word of protest spread around Essex + more villages refused. 2nd June→Chief Justice comes to collect poll tax and is also threatened, peasants find tax collector's Clerks and behead them. 7th June →→March to Maidstone + free prisoners (John Ball), storm Rochester Castle and burn tax records. Wat Tyler is made leader. 12th June →Peasant's reach London's city walls. 13th June →→ Peasant's storm the city walls, burn palaces and kill Supporters of the King - home of John of Gaunt burnt 14th June →→group of peasants beheads Archbishop of Canterbury. + Treasurer Richard II went to Mile End to meet with the rebels and he was. presented with a list of demands. The king agreed and asked the peasants to go home. 15th June Richard met Wat Tyler and the rebels at Smith field and agrees to their demands but one of his men kills Wat Tyler. The peasants leave London and the revolt is over. Aftermath →Richard went back on his word. He said he had been forced to agree to the demands so it did not count. The rebel leaders. were all rounded up and hanged, Impact / significance SHORT TERM SIGNIFICANCE → It marked a challenge to the authority of Richard 11, that he had to overcome. →it led to the death of thousands of peasants + rebellions spread as far as Yorkshire (though mainly London, Kent + Essex) → Lots of property was destroyed and key individuals (e.g. Arch bishop of Canterbury) were murdered. → It was an event that was commented on a lot at the time by the people who were alive. → It challenged the feudal system + great power in numbers. DEVELOPMENT OF IDEAS Some believe revolt was unnecessary as society was already changing → It was the first-working class rebellion, although some people. were middle class → It marked the beginning of English ideas of freedom → It showed the government the potential consequences of their activ John Ball's ideas that all men should be equal reappeared in America's Declaration of Independence. → People valued peasants more due to the discpline of the army → Government feared another rebellion LONG-TERM SUCCESS →The Poll Tax was never repeated until 1989 and taxes were never as high again →Worker's wages began to rise as there was still a lack of workers so the peasants could demand higher wages →The peasants eventually get what they wanted although it did take around 100 years It was the beginning of freedom for normal, ordinary English people. Many peasants be came independent farmers. They were now able to make their own choices such as who they wanted to marry and where they wanted to live. →it frightened the rich and meant that peasants in the future had more freedom and weren't exploited as much. It also changed King Richard's style of rule as well - he know he had to be tougher or this could happen again