Tag: Peasant Revolt

The Post-Plague English Peasant Revolt of 1381

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With the plague decimating the ranks of laborers, surviving workers rebelled against the crown’s higher taxes and restrictive labor laws. Introduction As a professor of medieval Europe, I’ve taught the bubonic plague, and how it contributed to the English Peasant Revolt of 1381. When a deadly disease started to spread, the most vulnerable and powerless[…]

From Pandemic Then Grew Rebellion: The 1381 Revolt of the English Peasantry

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There was a brief moment in 1381 when a better world struggled to be born, but the promise of that moment was deferred. On July 13th in 1381, a garrison of rebelling peasants from Norfolk, Essex, and Kent marched into London, the gates of the city left open either out of sympathy for the cause of[…]