Editing Peasants' Revolt (section)

===Outbreak of revolt===

====Essex and Kent====
The revolt of 1381 broke out in [[Essex]], following the arrival of [[John Brampton|John Bampton]] to investigate non-payment of the poll tax on 30 May.<ref name=Dunn2002P73>{{harvnb|Dunn|2002|p=73}}</ref> Bampton was a Member of Parliament, a Justice of the Peace and well-connected with royal circles.<ref name=Dunn2002P73/> He based himself in [[Brentwood, Essex|Brentwood]] and summoned representatives from the neighbouring villages of [[Corringham, Essex|Corringham]], [[Fobbing]] and [[Stanford-le-Hope]] to explain and make good the shortfalls on 1 June.<ref name=Dunn2002P73/> The villagers appear to have arrived well-organised, and armed with old bows and sticks.<ref name="Sumption 2009 420">{{harvnb|Sumption|2009|p=420}}</ref> Bampton first interrogated the people of Fobbing, whose representative, [[Thomas Baker (Peasants' Revolt leader)|Thomas Baker]], declared that his village had already paid their taxes, and that no more money would be forthcoming.<ref name="Sumption 2009 420"/> When Bampton and two sergeants attempted to arrest Baker, violence broke out.<ref name=Dunn2002P73/> Bampton escaped and retreated to London, but three of his clerks and several of the Brentwood townsfolk who had agreed to act as jurors were killed.<ref>{{harvnb|Dunn|2002|p=73}}; {{harvnb|Sumption|2009|p=420}}</ref> [[Robert Bealknap]], the Chief Justice of the [[Court of Common Pleas (England)|Court of Common Pleas]], who was probably already holding court in the area, was empowered to arrest and deal with the perpetrators.<ref>{{harvnb|Dunn|2002|pp=73–74}}</ref>

[[File:Longbowmen.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|alt=Medieval painting|Peasant longbowmen at practice, from the [[Luttrell Psalter]], c. 1320–1340]]
By the next day, the revolt was rapidly growing.<ref name=Dunn2002P74>{{harvnb|Dunn|2002|p=74}}</ref> The villagers spread the news across the region, and John Geoffrey, a local bailiff, rode between Brentwood and [[Chelmsford]], rallying support.<ref name=Dunn2002P74/> On 4 June, the rebels gathered at [[Bocking, Essex|Bocking]], where their future plans seem to have been discussed.<ref>{{harvnb|Sumption|2009|pp=420–421}}</ref> The Essex rebels, possibly a few thousand strong, advanced towards London, some probably travelling directly and others via Kent.<ref name=Dunn2002P74/> One group, under the leadership of [[John Wrawe]], a former [[chaplain]], marched north towards the neighbouring county of Suffolk, with the intention of raising a revolt there.<ref>{{harvnb|Dunn|2002|p=122}}; {{harvnb|Powell|1896|p=9}}</ref>

Revolt also flared in neighbouring [[Kent]].<ref name=Dunn2002P75>{{harvnb|Dunn|2002|p=75}}</ref> Sir [[Simon de Burley]], a close associate of both Edward III and the young Richard, had claimed that a man in Kent, called Robert Belling, was an escaped serf from one of his estates.<ref name=Dunn2002P75/> Burley sent two sergeants to [[Gravesend]], where Belling was living, to reclaim him.<ref name=Dunn2002P75/> Gravesend's local bailiffs and Belling tried to negotiate a solution under which Burley would accept a sum of money in return for dropping his case, but this failed and Belling was taken away to be imprisoned at [[Rochester Castle]].<ref name=Dunn2002P75/> A furious group of local people gathered at [[Dartford]], possibly on 5 June, to discuss the matter.<ref>{{harvnb|Dunn|2002|pp=75–76}}</ref> From there the rebels travelled to [[Maidstone]], where they stormed the prison, and then on to [[Rochester, Kent|Rochester]] on 6 June.<ref>{{harvnb|Dunn|2002|pp=60, 76}}</ref> Faced by the angry crowds, the constable in charge of Rochester Castle surrendered it without a fight and Belling was freed.<ref name=Dunn2002P76>{{harvnb|Dunn|2002|p=76}}</ref>

Some of the Kentish crowds now dispersed, but others continued.<ref name=Dunn2002P76/> From this point, they appear to have been led by [[Wat Tyler]], whom the ''Anonimalle Chronicle'' suggests was elected their leader at a large gathering at Maidstone on 7 June.<ref name=Dunn2002Sumption2009P421>{{harvnb|Dunn|2002|p=58}}; {{harvnb|Sumption|2009|p=421}}</ref> Relatively little is known about Tyler's former life; chroniclers suggest that he was from Essex, had served in France as an archer and was a charismatic and capable leader.<ref name=Dunn2002Sumption2009P421/> Several chroniclers believe that he was responsible for shaping the political aims of the revolt.<ref>{{harvnb|Dunn|2002|p=58}}</ref> Some also mention a [[Jack Straw (rebel leader)|Jack Straw]] as a leader among the Kentish rebels during this phase in the revolt, but it is uncertain if this was a real person, or a pseudonym for Wat Tyler or John Wrawe.<ref>{{harvnb|Dunn|2002|pp=62–63}}</ref>{{#tag:ref|Walsingham highlights the role of a "Jack Straw", and is supported by Froissart, although Knighton argues that this was a pseudonym; other chroniclers fail to mention him at all. The historian Friedrich Brie popularised the argument in favour of the pseudonym in 1906. Modern historians recognise Tyler as the primary leader, and are doubtful about the role of "Jack Straw".<ref>{{harvnb|Dunn|2002|pp=62–63}}; {{harvnb|Brie|1906|pp=106–111}}; {{harvnb|Matheson|1998|p=150}}</ref>|group="nb"}}

Tyler and the Kentish men advanced to [[Canterbury]], entering the [[Canterbury city walls|walled city]] and [[Canterbury Castle|castle]] without resistance on 10 June.<ref>{{harvnb|Dunn|2002|pp=76–77}}; {{harvnb|Lyle|2002|p=91}}</ref> The rebels deposed the absent Archbishop of Canterbury, Sudbury, and made the cathedral monks swear loyalty to their cause.<ref>{{harvnb|Dunn|2002|p=77}}</ref> They attacked properties in the city with links to the hated royal council, and searched the city for suspected enemies, dragging the suspects out of their houses and executing them.<ref>{{harvnb|Dunn|2002|p=77}}; {{harvnb|Sumption|2009|p=421}}</ref> The city prison was opened and the prisoners freed.<ref>{{harvnb|Sumption|2009|p=421}}</ref> Tyler then persuaded a few thousand of the rebels to leave Canterbury and advance with him on London the next morning.<ref name=Dunn2002P78/>

====March on the capital====
[[File:John Ball encouraging Wat Tyler rebels from ca 1470 MS of Froissart Chronicles in BL.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|alt=Medieval painting|15th-century representation of the cleric [[John Ball (priest)|John Ball]] encouraging the rebels; [[Wat Tyler]] is shown in red, front left]]

The Kentish advance on London appears to have been coordinated with the movement of the rebels in Essex, [[Suffolk]] and [[Norfolk]].<ref name=Dunn2002P78/> Their forces were armed with weapons including sticks, battle axes, old swords and bows.<ref>{{harvnb|Sumption|2009|p=422}}</ref>{{#tag:ref|Military historian Jonathan Sumption considers this description of the rebels' weaponry, drawn from the chronicler [[Thomas Walsingham]], as reliable; literary historian Stephen Justice is less certain, noting the sarcastic manner in which Walsingham mocks the rebels' old and dilapidated arms, including their bows "reddened with age and smoke."<ref>{{harvnb|Justice|1994|p=204}}; {{harvnb|Sumption|2009|p=422}}</ref>|group="nb"}} Along their way, they encountered [[Joan of Kent|Lady Joan]], the King's mother, who was travelling back to the capital to avoid being caught up in the revolt; she was mocked but otherwise left unharmed.<ref name=Dunn2002P78/> The Kentish rebels reached [[Blackheath, London|Blackheath]], just south-east of the capital, on 12 June.<ref name=Dunn2002P78/>{{#tag:ref|Historian Andrew Prescott has critiqued these timings, arguing that it would have been unlikely that so many rebels could have advanced so fast on London, given the condition of the medieval road networks.<ref name="Strohm 2008 203">{{harvnb|Strohm|2008|p=203}}</ref>|group="nb"}}

Word of the revolt reached the King at [[Windsor Castle]] on the night of 10 June.<ref name=Dunn2002P78/> He travelled by boat down the [[River Thames]] to London the next day, taking up residence in the powerful fortress of the [[Tower of London]] for safety, where he was joined by his mother, Archbishop Sudbury, the [[Lord High Treasurer]] Sir [[Robert Hales (knight)|Robert Hales]], the Earls of [[Richard FitzAlan, 11th Earl of Arundel|Arundel]], [[William de Montacute, 2nd Earl of Salisbury|Salisbury]] and [[Thomas de Beauchamp, 12th Earl of Warwick|Warwick]] and several other senior nobles.<ref>{{harvnb|Dunn|2002|p=78}}; {{harvnb|Sumption|2009|p=423}}</ref> A delegation, headed by [[Thomas Brinton]], the [[Bishop of Rochester]], was sent out from London to negotiate with the rebels and persuade them to return home.<ref name=Dunn2002P78>{{harvnb|Dunn|2002|p=78}}</ref>

At Blackheath, [[John Ball (priest)|John Ball]] gave a famous sermon to the assembled Kentishmen.<ref name="Sumption 2009 423">{{harvnb|Sumption|2009|p=423}}</ref> Ball was a well-known priest and radical preacher from Kent, who was by now closely associated with Tyler.<ref>{{harvnb|Dunn|2002|p=60}}; {{harvnb|Sumption|2009|p=422}}</ref> Chroniclers' accounts vary as to how he came to be involved in the revolt; he may have been released from Maidstone prison by the crowds, or might have been already at liberty when the revolt broke out.<ref>{{harvnb|Dunn|2002|p=76}}; {{harvnb|Sumption|2009|p=422}}</ref> Ball rhetorically asked the crowds "When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then a gentleman?" and promoted the rebel slogan "With King Richard and the true commons of England".<ref name="Sumption 2009 423"/> The phrases emphasised the rebel opposition to the continuation of serfdom and to the hierarchies of the Church and State that separated the subject from the King, while stressing that they were loyal to the monarchy and, unlike the King's advisers, were "true" to Richard.<ref>{{harvnb|Dunn|2002|p=58}}; {{harvnb|Jones|2010|pp=62, 80}}; {{harvnb|Rubin|2006|p=124}}</ref> The rebels rejected proposals from the Bishop of Rochester that they should return home, and instead prepared to march on.<ref name=Dunn2002P78/>

Discussions took place in the Tower of London about how to deal with the revolt.<ref name=Dunn2002P78/> The King had only a few troops at hand, in the form of the castle's garrison, his immediate bodyguard and, at most, several hundred soldiers.<ref>{{harvnb|Sumption|2009|p=422}}; {{harvnb|Dunn|2002|p=135}}; {{harvnb|Tuck|1987|p=199}}</ref>{{#tag:ref|Chronicler figures for the King's immediate forces in London vary; Henry Knighton argues that the King had between 150–180 men in the Tower of London, Thomas Walsingham suggests 1,200. These were probably over-estimates, and historian Alastair Dunn assesses that only a skeleton force was present; Jonathan Sumption judges that around 150 men-at-arms were present, and some archers.<ref>{{harvnb|Dunn|2002|pp=91–92}}; {{harvnb|Sumption|2009|p=423}}</ref>|group="nb"}} Many of the more experienced military commanders were in France, Ireland and Germany, and the nearest major military force was in the north of England, guarding against a potential Scottish invasion.<ref>{{harvnb|Sumption|2009|p=423}}; {{harvnb|Dunn|2002|p=135}}; {{harvnb|Tuck|1987|p=199}}</ref> Resistance in the provinces was also complicated by English law, which stated that only the King could summon local militias or lawfully execute rebels and criminals, leaving many local lords unwilling to attempt to suppress the uprisings on their own authority.<ref>{{harvnb|Tuck|1987|pp=198–200}}</ref>

Since the Blackheath negotiations had failed, the decision was taken that the King himself should meet the rebels, at [[Greenwich]], on the south side of the Thames.<ref>{{harvnb|Dunn|2002|pp=78–79}}</ref> Guarded by four barges of soldiers, Richard sailed from the Tower on the morning of 13 June, where he was met on the other side by the rebel crowds.<ref name=Dunn2002P79>{{harvnb|Dunn|2002|p=79}}</ref> The negotiations failed, as Richard was unwilling to come ashore and the rebels refused to enter discussions until he did.<ref name=Dunn2002P79/> Richard returned across the river to the Tower.<ref name="autogenerated79">{{harvnb|Dunn|2002|p=79}}; {{harvnb|Sumption|2009|p=424}}</ref>