12 June 1381
Peasants' Revolt

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Up to 10,000 men, mostly from Essex and Kent, set up camp on Blackheath outside London in protest at the levying by Parliament of a poll tax on all men – the third tax in four years. Their leaders are upwardly mobile villager Wat Tyler and radical preacher John Ball. The teenage king, Richard II, goes to meet them but turns back at the first sign of trouble. The rebels take this as rejection and go berserk: John of Gaunt's palace is burned down; the Tower of London is invaded and the queen mother assaulted; the prisons are opened; financial records are destroyed; 150 foreigners are slaughtered; and the archbishop of Canterbury and the treasurer are beheaded. When Richard II faces up to them, Tyler asks for an end to villeinage, a pardon for outlaws, a declaration of equality between all men (except the king) and the liquidation of Church property. Richard agrees, but one of his men calls Tyler a thief and a scuffle breaks out during which the mayor of London cuts off Tyler's head. Villeinage continues but the poll tax is scrapped.

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