Now reigneth pride in prize
and covetousness is held wise,
and lechery without shame
and gluttony without blame.
Envy reigneth with treason
and sloth is taken in great season.
God do boot, for now is time. Amen.
John Ball, Priest and one the leaders of the Peasants Revolt
Medieval Europe rested upon the work of peasants toiling in the fields providing the food that spelled the difference between barely sufficient and famine. Contrary to romantic images produced by people far removed from the reality, peasants had a harsh life that became much worse when times were tough. The aristocrats realized that a peasant revolt could overturn the system which benefited them, and they reacted with bloody repression when small scale peasant revolts occurred. Their nightmare was a large scale peasants’ revolt, and that nightmare came true in England in 1381.
Leftists sometimes try to portray this as a proto-socialist movement. Not at all. The rebels were royalists to their core, and pledged their loyalty to the fourteen year old King, looking to him for redress of their many grievances. In that they were mistaken, but long term there were improvements in their condition with a new poll tax imposed in 1382 which applied only to the wealthy. In 1390 Parliament abandoned the policy to keep wages low and granted Justices of the Peace the power to fix wages in accord with local prices. Reform is slow, but usually is more permanent than revolution.
