Wat Tyler’s Rebellion (1381) 5

Wat Tyler was a true hero of legendary bravery and virtue though sadly one that was too trusting. At the beggining of the 14th century the court of common pleas (the court handling the rights of the peasants) was effectively made impotent as royalty had no time for the rights of commoners. In 1381 when excessively harsh methods of implementing taxation took place the peasants began to feel they truly were being denied their rights. When Wat Tylers daughter was being determined whether she was of taxable age by a local tax collector, he stripped her naked and began to molest her. Wat Tyler heard her cries from nearby, entered the house and smashed the tax collectors skull in with his hammer. The revolt had begun. He united with two other peasant groups lead by John Ball and Jack Straw and rose a 100,000 strong army which promptly marched on London. Wat Tyler did not allow any incidents of looting, one man from his army had hid a silver cup on his person was thrown into the river and humiliated to discourage others from such behaviour. When Richard II had been surrounded he conceded to the peasants demands, although when he met with Wat shortly afterwards he ordered the Lord Mayor of London to set hands on him, Wat was stabbed through the neck and killed. Infuriated the peasants aimed their longbows at the king but the king persauded them somehow that he would treat them justly and they had a duty to their king. Afterwards over 1500 members of the revolt were executed and the peasants remained ultimately powerless. This was very personal revolt for me as it represented the first time a revolt led by the working class seriously threatened the power of the nations ruling classes, and demanded that they should be free forever and should have the same rights as anyone else, regardless of wealth, status or nobility.