THE PEASANTS' REVOLT SERIES-Episode 1: The Black Death's Golden Age

Episode 1: The Black Death's Golden AgeIn June 1348, a ship arrived at England's southern coast carrying a disease that would kill half the population. But for the survivors, the Black Death created something unexpected: power.This episode examines how the demographic catastrophe of 1348-1350 inverted England's economic order, giving common workers unprecedented bargaining power—and how the elite's attempt to legislate that power away set the stage for the revolt of 1381.Timeline covered: 1348-1380Key topics:- The demographic impact of the Black Death- The "Golden Age of Labour" and rising wages- From grain to groats: the shift to cash economy- The Statute of Labourers (1351)- Thirty years of legal frictionNext episode: "The Corruption Machine" - How royal justice became a weapon of class warfare.---Sources referenced in this episode:- Mark Bailey, The Decline of Serfdom in Late Medieval England- Christopher Dyer, Standards of Living in the Later Middle Ages- Robert Palmer, English Law in the Age of the Black Death- Statutes of the Realm, 25 Edw. III (1351)- Jean Froissart, Chronicles Get full access to Samuel Stephen Chronicles at samuelstephennovels.substack.com/subscribe