Editing Peasants' Revolt (section)

===Historiography===
[[File:Portrait of William Stubbs by Hubert von Herkomer.jpeg|thumb|upright=0.8|alt=Portrait painting of an older grey-haired man with grey whiskers clad in black and sitting in a chair|Historian [[William Stubbs]], who considered the revolt "one of the most portentous events in the whole of our history", painted by [[Hubert von Herkomer]]<ref name=Hilton1987P2>{{harvnb|Hilton|1987|p=2}}</ref>]]
Contemporary chroniclers of the events in the revolt have formed an important source for historians. The chroniclers were biased against the rebel cause and typically portrayed the rebels, in the words of the historian Susan Crane, as "beasts, monstrosities or misguided fools".<ref>{{harvnb|Crane|1992|p=208}}; {{harvnb|Strohm|2008|pp=198–199}}</ref> London chroniclers were also unwilling to admit the role of ordinary Londoners in the revolt, preferring to place the blame entirely on rural peasants from the south-east.<ref name=Strohm2008P201>{{harvnb|Strohm|2008|p=201}}</ref> Among the key accounts was the anonymous ''[[The Anonimalle Chronicle|Anonimalle Chronicle]]'', whose author appears to have been part of the royal court and an eye-witness to many of the events in London.<ref>{{harvnb|Jones|2010|p=215}}</ref> The chronicler [[Thomas Walsingham]] was present for much of the revolt, but focused his account on the terror of the social unrest and was extremely biased against the rebels.<ref>{{harvnb|Dunn|2002|pp=99–100}}; {{harvnb|Jones|2010|p=215}}</ref> The events were recorded in France by [[Jean Froissart]], the author of the ''[[Froissart's Chronicles|Chronicles]]''.<ref>{{harvnb|Reynaud|1897|p=94}}</ref> He had well-placed sources close to the revolt, but was inclined to elaborate the known facts with colourful stories.<ref>{{harvnb|Jones|2010|pp=215–216}}</ref> No sympathetic accounts of the rebels survive.<ref name="Strohm 2008 203"/>

For four centuries, chroniclers and historians of the revolt were overwhelmingly negative, but attitudes started to change in the 18th century as serfdom was long rejected and in the aftermath of the radicalism associated with the [[French Revolution]].<ref>{{harvnb|Crossley|2022}}</ref> At the end of the 19th century, there was a surge in historical interest in the Peasants' Revolt, spurred by the contemporary growth of the [[Labour movement|labour]] and [[Socialism|socialist]] movements.<ref>{{harvnb|Dyer|2003|p=x}}; {{harvnb|Crossley|2022|pp=241–267}}</ref> Work by [[Charles Oman]], Edgar Powell, André Réville and [[G. M. Trevelyan]] established the course of the revolt.<ref>{{harvnb|Dyer|2003|p=x}}; {{harvnb|Powell|1896}}; {{harvnb|Oman|1906}}; {{harvnb|Réville |1898}}; {{harvnb|Trevelyan|1899}}</ref> By 1907, the accounts of the chroniclers were all widely available in print and the main public records concerning the events had been identified.<ref>{{harvnb|Dyer|2000|p=191}}</ref> Réville began to use the legal indictments that had been used against suspected rebels after the revolt as a fresh source of historical information, and over the next century extensive research was carried out into the local economic and social history of the revolt, using scattered local sources across south-east England.<ref>{{harvnb|Dyer|2000|pp=191–192}}; {{harvnb|Hilton|1987|p=5}}</ref>

Interpretations of the revolt have changed over the years. Historians of the 17th Century, such as John Smyth, established the idea that the revolt had marked the end of unfree labour and serfdom in England.<ref name=Hilton1987P2/> Historians of the 19th Century, such as [[William Stubbs]] and [[Thorold Rogers]], reinforced this conclusion, Stubbs describing it as "one of the most portentous events in the whole of our history".<ref name=Hilton1987P2/> In the 20th century, this interpretation was increasingly challenged by historians such as [[May McKisack]], Michael Postan and Richard Dobson, who revised the impact of the revolt on further political and economic events in England.<ref>{{harvnb|Hilton|1987|pp=2–3}}</ref> Mid-20th century [[Marxist historiography|Marxist]] historians were both interested in, and generally sympathetic to, the rebel cause, a trend culminating in Hilton's 1973 account of the uprising, set against the wider context of [[Popular revolts in late medieval Europe|peasant revolts across Europe during the period]].<ref>{{harvnb|Strohm|2008|p=203}}; {{harvnb|Hilton|1995}}; {{harvnb|Jones|2010|p=217}}; {{harvnb|Dyer|2003|pp=xii–xiii}}; {{harvnb|Crossley|2022|pp=345–401}}</ref> The Peasants' Revolt has received more academic attention than any other medieval revolt, and this research has been interdisciplinary, involving historians, literary scholars and international collaboration.<ref>{{harvnb|Cohn|2013|pp=3–4}}</ref>

A large slate memorial to 'The Great Rising' was commissioned by Matthew Bell and carved by Emily Hoffnung. It was unveiled by the film director [[Ken Loach]] in [[Smithfield, London|Smithfield]] on 15 July 2015.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2015-07-17|title=Peasants' Revolt Plaque Unveiled In Smithfield|url=https://londonist.com/2015/07/peasants-revolt-plaque-unveiled-in-smithfield|access-date=18 October 2020|website=Londonist|language=en}}</ref>