England's Peasants' Revolt shakes the crown after decades of plague and war taxes
A new poll tax pushes rural England into open, if short-lived, rebellion
Quick facts
- Location
- Southeast England, then London
- Leader
- Wat Tyler
- King
- Richard II (r. 1377-1399)
- Duration
- About 4 weeks, June 1381
What happened
By 1381, English peasants had endured decades of grievances stacking on top of one another: labor shortages and rising wages after the Black Death that landlords tried to reverse by forcing free workers back into serfdom, wage caps imposed by law, and a series of taxes to fund the ongoing Hundred Years' War, including a new poll tax in 1380 that charged every person over 15 the same flat rate regardless of wealth, three times higher than the two poll taxes that preceded it. Rebellion broke out in southeast England in June 1381 under leaders including Wat Tyler and spread quickly to London, where rebels demanded an end to the poll tax, the wage cap, and serfdom itself, along with redistribution of the church's wealth. The rebels stopped short of trying to remove King Richard II, and after four weeks Richard put down the revolt, first through negotiation and then through the harsh punishment of its leaders.
Why it matters
Although Richard crushed the immediate uprising, the poll tax was abandoned and wage restrictions went largely unenforced afterward, and the broader trend the revolt reflected, peasants buying their way out of serfdom into independent farming, continued regardless, showing how the Black Death's labor shortage had permanently shifted bargaining power in the countryside.
How we know
Multiple contemporary English chronicles record the revolt's demands, its leaders, and its suppression, and the sequence of poll tax legislation that provoked it survives in England's own parliamentary and exchequer records.
Sources
- World History Encyclopedia. Peasants' Revolt · Reputable sourceworldhistory.org · The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- World History Encyclopedia. Peasants' Revolt · Reputable sourceworldhistory.org · The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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