Revolt in the Wake of Plague: The English Peasants’ Uprising of 1381

How the Black Death, economic suppression, and political injustice sparked a grassroots rebellion

This essay was written by Woobin Joo: a student from St. Louis, USA

The 14th century saw England undergo massive changes. The spread of the Black Death from different parts of the world weakened the continent’s economy. The Statute of Laborers Act in 1351 then created an uprising out of the peasant population, taking away what they thought were fair wages. The Poll Tax of 1380 took a large toll on commoners, due to the low wages that they were forced to keep from the Statute of Laborers Act. These three items created more challenges for the peasant population. The Black Death, the Statute of Laborers, and the Poll Tax of 1381 were the main factors in causing the peasants to boil over and revolt.

The Black Death’s impact on the world was undeniable. For instance, the price of agricultural products dropped, resulting in a massive decline in Europe’s agricultural market. This allowed for people to earn increased wages. Along with this, Europe’s population dwindled, as cities in Italy and Germany lost anywhere from a third to half of their populations: Florence lost half of its population, Venice lost around a third, and Hamburg lost two thirds of its population. The failure of medicine throughout Europe encouraged people to translate medical Latin texts into native languages and become more educated in medicine themselves to find what had gone wrong. As a result, medical texts were spread throughout the continent.

People began to believe that God was punishing them for all of the sins that were committed. Some locked their houses and wrote, “Lord have mercy on us” on the doors. People known as flagellants would weep, pray, tear their hair, or beat themselves with whips in asking for forgiveness from God. In order to receive forgiveness, people began giving many gifts to the church while making extravagant vows for the future.

Although many believed that God was the reason for the plague, lots of people also began to create theories of their own. Earthquakes were thought to have released poisonous gasses into the atmosphere from the Earth’s core. Another theory that people used to explain the plague was astrology, with Guy du Chauliac and the Parisian medical faculty both backing it. A third theory was that the Jews and witches of Europe had purposely created and spread the Black Death. This caused the two groups to be persecuted throughout Europe during the plague.

The problems that arose from the Black Death caused some peasants to take matters into their own hands. In northern France, peasants targeted the power that nobles had in the military and French state. Led by Guillaume Calle, they saw early success but were quickly suppressed by the nobility of France. In England, peasants from rural areas just south of London felt that the Statute of Laborers and the Poll Tax of 1381 were unfair, and sparked anger within. This led men such as Wat Tyler and John Ball to revolt.

The Black Death was devastating in England and all the other European regions it ravaged. The Black Death reached England by 1348, through the port of Dorset. The disease wiped out a third of the English population, although some estimates put it as high as forty percent. In villages where the plague was even more viral, the death toll went up to eighty to ninety percent. An example of this was in London, where the pre-plague population dropped from a hundred thousand to just twenty-thousand.

Due to the large scale of death throughout the kingdom, Feudalism was unable to stay as the dominant system used by the English. At the time, ninety percent of the population were commoners, which in turn meant that most of the thirty-five percent of people that died were commoners. Feudalism’s dependence on a large workforce of peasants saw the downfall of it coincide with the spread of the Black Death.

During this time period, the Catholic Church was able to dominate medieval European politics. Every person with a position of power lived and embraced the Catholic faith; it simply wasn’t a religion, but a way of life. The Church and the ruling class had a symbiotic relationship. The royalty would support the church and reinforce the authority the Church had. In exchange, the Church would strengthen the royalty’s claim to the throne. The Church had promised cures, treatment, and an explanation. Although the Pope stated that the punishment was God’s will, the reason for a punishment this bad was unknown. This led to the Church losing prestige, spiritual authority, and leadership over the common people. The peasants wanted answers, but the priests and bishops had none, causing villagers to become frustrated with the Church, and to call for a change in the system.

Peasants’ beliefs about two systems in place, one being Feudalism and other the Catholic Church, began to change. Ball said, “things cannot go well in England until all property is in common and there are neither serfs nor gentlemen but one united people”. Statements such as these helped John Ball and Wat Tyler in rallying the peasants and voice their beliefs that feudalism should be abolished. Ball also said, “Are we not all descended from the same parents, Adam and Eve? What can they show or what reason can they give, why they should be more masters”. Along with calling for the downfall of feudalism, he called for the hierarchy of bishops, popes, and cardinals to be equal to commoners.

The Statute of Laborers Act of 1351 was extremely cruel as it devalued the English common people. The act states that, "because a great part of the people and especially of the, workmen and servants has now died in that pestilence, some, seeing the straights of the masters and the scarcity of servants, are not willing to serve unless they receive excessive wages". This repelled the peasants’ original advances for higher wages. The small number of laborers available throughout the Black Death forced lords into giving in. But, the Statute of Laborers Act pushed back on the commoners’ desire for power, implementing section that states, “he shall take only the wages, liveries, meed or salary which, in the places where he sought to serve, were accustomed to be paid in the twentieth year of our reign of England”. By freezing the wages back to pre-plague levels, the act decreased the amount being paid to peasants, increasing the tension within the peasant population.

In addition to this, the Statute of Laborers Act caused two actions to become criminal and have the same consequences for the peasant.

“Rather than through labour to gain their living, prefer to beg in idleness… And if a reaper or mower, or other workman or servant, of whatever standing or condition he be, who is retained in the service of any one, do depart from the said service before the end of the term agreed, without permission or reasonable cause, he shall undergo the penalty of imprisonment, and let no one, under the same penalty, presume to receive or retain such a one in his service.”

One was choosing to have no job, and the second was a person moving to another lord before the end of their contract for no reasonable cause. Both acts would result in imprisonment for the commoner.

This act instilled an irritation within the common people of the kingdom, as they obviously deserved wages that were increased to fit the supply and demand of the time. They felt that the plague had provided them with an opportunity to earn what they deserved, but the act stripped them of this opportunity. This irritation began to grow, until it finally snapped after the Poll Tax of 1380.

The Poll Tax of 1380 was the last of three poll taxes that had been enforced in a short period of four years. The first two came in 1377 and 1379. Although the taxes of 1377 and 1379 were both unfair, the one in 1380 was by far the harshest one, tripling the fees required by the prior two taxes. The fee expanded to three groats, which was equivalent to multiple days of labor. This fee meant that the peasants were losing a significant part of the small wages they earned.

The taxes were forced upon everyone, but it affected the commoners the most. With it being a tax that affected all, no consideration was taken in regards to who could afford to pay it or not, causing peasants who couldn’t pay to be punished. Since the wages that the peasants could make were capped, the number of peasants who were unable to pay was high. The first two taxes exempted all citizens under the age of sixteen, but the third tax lowered the minimum age for taxing to fifteen, excluding beggars. This led to even more people than before struggling to keep up with the demands levied by the government.

The people had previously been taxed twenty seven times during the reign of Edward III, the monarch who preceded Richard II. He used these taxes to fund the Hundred Years’ War against France. Similarly, Richard II used the same methods to fund the war against Spain. However, the first round only brought in two thirds of the sum needed, and a second round was imposing. This second round was the final straw for the peasants and sparked the English Peasant Revolt of 1381.

The English Peasant Revolt was extremely short-lived, but not for the reasons most wars are short. It lasted for less than a month, as it somehow ended in a catastrophic failure. Wat Tyler and John Ball were able to lead the peasants to take control of London, and free prisoners from Marshalsea prison. As a result of this, the peasants were able to voice their opinions to King Richard II. In this meeting, Wat Tyler and King Richard and his posse discussed the conditions. However in a mixup, Tyler pulled out his dagger, and was ultimately killed by William Walworth, the mayor of London. This caused chaos amongst the peasants, and drew their bows, but the king’s army quickly surrounded them. This caused the surrender of the Peasants and ultimately the end of the Rebellion.

The legacies of the Peasant Revolt were profound, with the peasants meeting a few of the goals they had set for themselves. They were mostly pardoned, but leaders like John Ball s were hanged. Although not immediate, serfdom began to decline, and soon disappeared. Lords, fearful of another revolt, forgave lots of feudal dues and services. Along with the decline of Feudalism, the Roman Catholic hierarchy went into decline. Finally, King Richard II began to develop traits of an absolutist ruler due to the revolt and how he almost lost his kingdom.

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