Peasants’ Revolt in United Kingdom

The first (1381) great popular protest in English history. There were two immediate causes -in accordance to Bamber Gascoigne´ Encyclopedia of Britain about the entry Peasants’ Revolt– of resentment: an attempt to hold down wages in the scarce labour market resulting from the Black Death; and the recent imposition of a poll tax of one shilling a head. Rebel forces marched on London from Essex and from Kent. The young king, Richard II, met the Essex men outside the city and made some major concessions. Meanwhile the Kentish men, led by Wat Tyler, had entered London; they destroyed property and murdered two high officials held to be responsible for the poll tax. On the following day, at a meeting with Richard II, Tyler was wounded in a scuffle; he was later beheaded. The uprising gradually petered out and the king’s concessions were immediately forgotten. But until the 1980s there was no further mention in Britain of a poll tax.