Peasants Revolt The End of Something Great the Beginning of Something Greater
- This is a preview of the essay.
To view the full text you must login!
"Ah, ye good people, matters goeth not well in England, nor shall not do, till everything be common, till there be no villeins nor gentlemen, but we all be united together, and the lords be no greater masters than we be" (Froissart 62). John Ball of Kent preached these words in 1381 to a crowd of peasants in the street. What was he suggesting? Equality, freedom. The fact was that the higher were suppressing the lower, the nobility were suppressing the peasants; the King was suppressing his people. Leaders such as Wat Tyler and John Ball led the commoners in a rebellion against lords, laws, and tradition. Although it failed short-term, the Rebellion of 1381 had a profound effect on the lives of the English for centuries to come.
Peasants of Kent, Essex, and Hertfordshire did not simply awaken one day with the idea of Revolution fresh in their minds; their dream had been provoked. It began with the Black Death in 1348, which left somewhere between 30 and 60 percent of Europe's population dead. As a result, many feudal lords had trouble finding laborers to work their fields...