Richard II – The Peasants revolt 1381 – Part One
The new king was a mere boy, ten years of age!
Thus his kingly talents were somewhat hard to gauge!
Richard II
Richard had been born in 1367 at Bordeaux, which was his father’s base when ravaging south-western France. Richard’s coronation on July 16th 1377 was a splendid affair which took place a month after his grandfather, Edward III had died. The city of London was adorned by multi-coloured banners, which lined the route that his procession took to the enthronement ceremony at Westminster Abbey. Once the solemnities and festivities of the coronation were over, it was a case of business as usual. The main influence on the young king in these early years would be his uncle, John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster. John of Gaunt was a powerful man, heartily loathed within and also outside of, parliament.
John of Gaunt.
But these were troubled times.
‘A heavy tax levied on each and every peasant’
Eventually caused a mood which became most unpleasant!’
Richard ascended the throne during a time of growing discontent amongst the English people. There occurred something that would enrage the English peasantry beyond measure. Hitherto, they had been content to tend their crops and livestock, but this would change in 1381.
Peasants with their sheep.
In the first year of Richard’s reign, parliament had levied a poll tax which by 1381 had increased threefold, causing the peasantry no small degree of hardship. The poll tax was introduced to pay for the hugely expensive ‘Hundred Years War’ against the French.
English troops disembarking during the Hundred Years War.
One of the instigators of the first poll tax was John of Gaunt. The problem with the poll tax was that everyone, regardless of means, paid the same rate. So poorer people paid a much higher proportion of their income than did wealthier ones. Soon people were finding ways to avoid paying the poll tax, causing government revenue to fall. Desperately short of money, this was clearly a state of affairs that parliament could not tolerate.
The King’s tax collectors find themselves being fobbed off by the people of Fobbing!
The first point of conflict occurred when tax collectors arrived at Brentwood, Essex in May 1381. Some people from nearby Fobbing were there and in response to the chief tax collector, Thomas Bampton’s demand that they pay the tax, their spokesman, one Thomas the Baker replied:
‘Pay?
No it’s not ok!
Can’t pay!
Won’t pay!
Not this day!
Nor any other day!
Doesn’t matter what you say!’
Bampton ordered his guards to arrest Baker, but the villagers physically resisted this move. The tax collectors beat a hasty retreat back to London and many of the villages in Essex followed the example of the people of Fobbing.
‘There ain’t no tax collectors going to get away with any more robbing!
No! We are all following the example of the stout villagers of Fobbing!’
The stage was set for a national revolt. Very swiftly, the counties of Hertfordshire, Kent, Norfolk and Suffolk rose and marched on London. Nothing like this had ever occurred before or since, and it appeared that the English feudal order was in dire danger of destruction.