564 peasant rebellions
marauders, joined their Crusades outside Western
Europe. Little was heard about the Peace and Truce of
God in the later Middle Ages.
See alsoCOMMUNE.
Further reading:Thomas Head and Richard Landes,
eds., The Peace of God: Social Violence and Religious
Response in France around the Year 1000(Ithaca, N.Y.:
Cornell University Press, 1992); Robert I. Moore, The
Formation of a Persecuting Society: Power and Deviance in
Western Europe, 950–1250 (New York: Basil Blackwell,
1987); Robert I. Moore, The First European Revolution, c.
970–1215(Oxford: Blackwell, 2000).
peasant rebellions There were numerous peasant
rebellions during the Middle Ages in Western Europe; the
best known and most important ones occurred in the
14th and 15th centuries. Documentation of others in
Eastern Europe, in the BYZANTINEEMPIRE, and among
Muslims is much less extant, if it exists at all. The earlier
European revolts were more local than later efforts.
There were common points of conflict in all of the
medieval peasant rebellions: the concept of free status,
labor service due the lord, rents, taxes, access to vital
common rights such as pasture, administration of JUSTICE
in the lords’ courts, and other particulars of the relation-
ship between the community of peasants and its lord. The
success of these movements varied, but they served as
reminders of the scope of aristocratic power: there was a
limit to what the peasantry would tolerate. The revolts
also reflected economic change in labor markets, the rural
economy, and agricultural organization. In the 14th cen-
tury the revolts became more violent, frequent, and ambi-
tious, especially after the PLAGUEof the late 1340s. Major
conflicts exploded in FLANDERSbetween 1323 and 1328
and in FRANCEin the JACQUÉRIEin 1358. The Tuchin
movement in central France in the 1360s that lasted until
the end of the century. Other uprisings included the
English peasant rebellion of 1381 and peasant wars in
Catalonia from 1460 into the 1480s. At the same time
growing urban labor populations, many of whom were
recent transplants from the countryside, caused disorder
and conflict over industrial labor conditions in the towns.
THE REVOLT IN ENGLANDThe most important and widespread insurrection in
English history was the revolt of English peasants during
the months of May and June in 1381; it was also the pop-
ular rebellion with the best remaining documentation
anywhere in medieval Europe. Several causes have been
suggested, including a Marxist crisis of FEUDALISM, a dis-
pute over customary relationships, and a violent and
unpremeditated reaction of the peasantry to misadminis-
tration in government and justice and excessive war taxa-
tion—in particular, three oppressive poll taxes between
1377 and 1381.
The uprising was first documented in southern Essex
toward the end of May 1381; then, early in June, the
commons of Kent forcibly entered the towns of Rochester
on June 6 and CANTERBURYon June 10. They chose an
obscure but charismatic leader, Wat Tyler. They marched
to Blackheath, near LONDON, intending to present
grievances to the 14-year-old king, RICHARDII. After the
rebels of Essex and Kent broke through the defenses of
London, Richard agreed to meet them on Friday, June 14,
promising a general emancipation of English tenants
from VILLEINstatus, the most oppressive form of peasant
status.
In the meantime the insurgents were joined by disaf-
fected urban artisans and craftsmen. They sacked the lux-
urious palace of the Savoy owned by JOHN OFGAUNTand
had Archbishop Simon Sudbury (d. 1381) and Treasurer
Robert Hales (d. 1381), the most infamous of the king’s
ministers, executed in the Tower of London. At the meet-
ing between Richard and Wat Tyler, a mêlée ensued in
which Tyler was killed, perhaps foiled in an assassination
attempt on the king. Thereupon the crowd dispersed and
Richard claimed some kind of victory. The rebellion fell
apart after that, especially after the city of London did not
rise up in support. The king quickly reneged on his
promises and his government brutally quelled any further
resistance.
Executions of the perceived ringleaders, including
the priest John BALL, followed over the next summer. The
new poll and ecclesiastical taxes however, were not levied
again. Later rebellions involving rural unrest followed,
including one led by Jack CADEin 1451. This rebellion
had an afterlife in English history for its egalitarian aspi-
rations and for its dream of applying Christian justice to
all of society. Conditions of rural work and servitude did
not immediately improve, but in the longer run, at least
because of change in the rural labor market, genuine serf-
dom became unprofitable for lords.
See alsoAGRICULTURE; CIOMPI REVOLT; FOOD, DRINK,
AND NUTRITION; MANORS AND MANORIAL LORDSHIP; PEAS-
ANTRY; SERFS AND SERFDOM; VILLEINS AND VILLEINAGE.
Further reading:Richard B. Dobson, ed., The Peas-
ants’ Revolt of 1381(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1970);
Rodney H. Hilton, Bond Men Made Free: Medieval Peasant
Movements and the English Rising of 1381(London: Tem-
ple Smith, 1973); Steven Justice, Writing and Rebellion:
England in 1381(Berkeley: University of California Press,
1994); Michael Mollat and Philippe Wolff, The Popular
Revolutions of the Late Middle Ages,trans. A. L. Lytton-
Sells (London: Allen and Unwin, 1973); William H.
TeBrake, A Plague of Insurrection: Popular Politics and
Peasant Revolt in Flanders, 1323–1328(Philadelphia: Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania Press, 1993).peasantry In the medieval world, peasants represented
perhaps 80 to 85 percent of the European population.