Skip to content
England’s War on the Poor episode artwork

Sep 1, 2025 1 hr

England’s War on the Poor

from Softcore History Hosted by Softcore History

King Edward III made it illegal to not be poor in 1300s England. At least, illegal if you were already poor. Negotiating for higher wages? Straight to jail. Wearing clothes that made you look wealthy? Straight to jail. Trying to get a better job? Jail. All because the upper classes were annoyed with having to negotiate wages with workers after the Black Death created a labor shortage and the working class gained the upper hand.Subscribe to the Softcore History Patreon for hundreds of hours of extra history content including episodes like this, listener voicemails, movie watch-alongs, and weekly bonus episodes. Get 25% off your subscription or try the app FREE for seven days at Fitbod.me/SOFTCORERob Foxhttps://www.instagram.com/robfoxthree/ https://twitter.com/RobFoxThree https://www.tiktok.com/@robfoxthree Dan Regesterhttps://www.instagram.com/danregester/ https://twitter.com/dan_regester

Episode details come from the podcast's RSS feed.

Embed this episode

Ready to play

England’s War on the Poor

0:00 1:00:26

No transcript yet.

Requests help us decide what to transcribe next.

Frequently asked questions

How long is this episode of Softcore History?

This episode is 1 hour and 0 minutes long.

When was this Softcore History episode published?

This episode was published on September 1, 2025.

Can I download this Softcore History episode?

Yes. Use the download control on the episode player to save the publisher-provided media file.