1381: The Year of the Peasants’ Revolt

I like to call books like this “histories of the concrete.” Such books carry the reader along. You feel as if you are living in the period. They recount story after story of what happened to real people, and explain the contexts. This author is so good at this that you marvel at her skills, and, for me at least, wish that you could meet and talk with her.In 1381 various groups of Englishmen converged on London, entered the city, burned houses and other institutions, including the palace of one of the most powerful men in the country, entered the Tower of London where the king had been only a few hours earlier, murdered three of his highest counselors, and demanded that the king institute reforms which, had they been carried out, would have completely changed the structure of society.King Richard II, who was only 14 years old, met the rebels in an open field and agreed to all their demands, the most important of which was that the government stop taxing them to pay for useless wars with France. Carrying documents from the king which they thought would protect them, the rebels went on to attack houses, churches and institutions elsewhere in the country, and everywhere they went they burned the administrative documents which were used to tax them.The origin of the revolt was the great plague of 1348, in which a third (some say a half) of the population died. The result was there was more land and opportunity for those who survived. But landowners who lived off of the labor of the great masses of people did not want change. They had laws passed to keep wages the same as before the plague, and to force people to stay where they had always been and continue to work for them.At the same time England was waging what would later be known as the Hundred Years War, mainly with France. Well-armed soldiers marauded through the countrysides of both countries, murdering, robbing and raping the peasants, while the knights of the opposing country stayed out of reach. There had been a similar uprising in France earlier. Like the revolt of 1381 in England, it was caused by the anger of the people at being endlessly taxed, while receiving no protection.The so-called Peasants’ Revolt in England (which was actually waged by many well-educated men) failed in the short-term because the king, having granted all the demands of the mob, retracted them only a few weeks later. The only part of the revolt which succeeded was that the government gave up collecting “poll taxes” for 609 years until Margaret Thatcher tried to collect one in 1990 (but had to back off when reminded of what happened in 1381).The writing of this book is so powerful that you will not want to put it down until the last page. The genius of the author is that she can tell compelling stories while not going beyond the evidence and not distracting the reader too much with the processes of inference from fragmentary data. I picked up this book because I was trying to learn Middle English in order to read Chaucer. Someone suggested that it would provide “context” for my studies, which it did.We are lucky to have historians who can write like this. I learned much about England’s administration. England was a land of laws even at this period, with a sophisticated administration. I also learned how tiles for roofs were made (one of the legendary leaders might have been a “Tyler”), how fast soldiers could traverse the countryside, how soldiers were armed and fought, how hotels in the suburbs would have looked (where pilgrims to places like Canterbury started their journeys), and a thousand other things, most importantly, that two of the streets where Flemish prostitutes worked in 1381 were called Cock Lane and Gropecuntlane.

Without any exaggeration, this is a brilliant piece of work. Because I have been reading about the so-called Peasant’s Revolt for at least 40 years and I am familiar with all of the sources in Juliet Barker’s book, my initial expectations were low. I was quickly undeceived. The writing is both lucid and sophisticated and details that might seem repetitive at first glance are nonetheless critical to her thoroughly convincing arguments. This book could not have been written by an academic historian dedicated to jargon or a popular historian of the sort that trades in twaddle. I have quibbles here and there, especially about events in London, but they are in the end just that, quibbles. I have recommended this book to many friends and here recommend it to all. This is the way history should be written.

This is a scholarly view of this period in medieval history - but it's so well written that it's good to just read! I was fascinated by the story - thety weren't peasants, they wer the middle class and they were revolting against high taxes! The gap between rich and poor was gigantic and the military budget was the source of the high taxes. Also, the leadership was challenged and conflict between Church and State was becoming more intense - does this sound familiar - as in news today? The author has dresearched and documented a wide reange of sources and challenges the simple view that a mob of peasants were led by a few leaders.

This is so thorough and wonderfully written. You really get a sense for the character of the people involved. The brutality and tragedy comes through in a way that I haven't seen in other accounts. Barker debunks popular myths and provides penetrating insights

A very informative book about the 1381 great revolt. This book brings to life the people of the time, the characters involved in the revolt, King Richard II, and accurately reveals the average commoner's lifestyle. The author did a great job. She brought a distant era to vivid life for her readers. The reader discovers that nowadays there are similarities as regards the issues citizens face. For example: high and burdensome taxes, wasted and squandered government monies, the chasm between rich and poor, etc. I would recommend this book to anybody, even those who are not necessarily 'into' history.

English historian Juliet Barker does a good job of writing about the details of the events of the "Peasant" Revolt 1381, but also reveals important facts of the revolt, such as the fact that there was an urban facet to the 1381 revolt. Detailed maps of southeastern England contained in the book prove to be extremely useful as one reads the book or as a person reads other books.

Harvard perpetuates the sin of referring to this rebellion as a "peasants' revolt", as the author's thesis is that those who participated included all strata of 14th century English society. Ignore that fact, and buy this, anyway. No, it's not cheap, but it's bound in cloth, and well worth the price; well written and competently researched histories don't grow on trees, after all. Important reading for anyone who lives in Britain, one of its former colonies, and, really, everyone else.

A fabulous read. I couldn't put it down. She makes the leaders of the revolt, who came seemingly from nowhere, clear and vivid figures.