1381
The Peasants’ Revolt
In 1381 simmering grievances erupted into the Peasants' Revolt.1 The Peasants' Revolt, also called Wat Tyler's Rebellion (1381), was the first great popular rebellion in English history.2 Its immediate cause was the imposition of the unpopular poll tax of 1380.2
Probably the main grievance of the agricultural labourers and urban working classes was the Statute of Labourers (1351), which attempted to fix maximum wages during the labour shortage following the Black Death.2 The revolt began in Essex in May 1381, taking the government of the young king Richard II (then just 14 years old) by surprise.2
On the 13th the Kentish men, under Wat Tyler, entered London.2 On the 14th Richard met the men of Essex outside London at Mile End, where he promised cheap land, free trade, and the abolition of serfdom and forced labor.2 The king met Tyler and the Kentishmen at Smithfield on the following day. A disturbance broke out, and Tyler was cut down in Richard's presence by the lord mayor of London, William Walworth.2
The rebellion lasted less than a month and failed completely as a social revolution. King Richard's promises at Mile End and Smithfield were promptly forgotten.2 It succeeded as a protest against the taxation of poorer classes insofar as it prevented further levying of the poll tax for more than 250 years.2
It was not only the poorest who rose, and it was not a successful social revolution. The promises made at Mile End and Smithfield were promptly forgotten. As a protest against the poll tax, though, Britannica says it worked for a very long time.