Rebellion from Below - The Peasants’ Revolt of 1381

This episode recounts the dramatic Peasants' Revolt of 1381, a turning point when ordinary people challenged the medieval order. Decades after the Black Death decimated England's population, labor shortages gave peasants new bargaining power — but the crown and nobility imposed the Statute of Labourers to freeze wages. Mounting resentment deepened as war taxes, including an unpopular poll tax, burdened the poor. Led by Wat Tyler and John Ball, the rebels rose in Essex and Kent, proclaiming equality before God and marching on London. For days, they seized control of the capital, executing royal officials and demanding the end of serfdom. The young King Richard II, only fourteen, met the rebels and promised reforms — but after Tyler's death at Smithfield, the movement collapsed. Royal forces crushed the rebellion, and its leaders were executed. Though suppressed, the revolt exposed the fractures of feudalism. Over the next century, serfdom declined and laborers gained freedoms unimaginable before. The Peasants' Revolt failed as an uprising — but it succeeded in awakening England to a new truth: the people's voice could no longer be silenced.