The Peasants' Revolt: events of May-June 1381
The Revolt Begins: Essex and Kent, May 1381
The immediate trigger for the Peasants’ Revolt came in late May 1381, when government tax commissioners arrived in the village of Brentwood in Essex to investigate non-payment of the Poll Tax. The villagers drove the commissioner out. News of this defiance spread rapidly. Within days, communities across Essex were in open resistance, and the rebellion in Kent was igniting in parallel. Wat Tyler emerged as the leader of the Kentish rebels, marshalling thousands into a disciplined force.
The revolt was not simply a mob. The rebels marched with organisation, targeted specific institutions (the records of serfdom, the property of corrupt officials) and articulated clear political demands. Their anger was directed not at the king himself — the fourteen-year-old Richard II was initially presented as a potential ally against bad advisers — but at the system that kept them in servitude.
The Peasants’ Revolt began in Brentwood, Essex in late May 1381 when tax commissioners were driven out. Within days, rebels from Essex and Kent were marching on London, led respectively by figures from each county with Wat Tyler leading the Kentish contingent.
The March on London and the Tower
By early June 1381, the rebel armies had converged on London. The city’s gates were opened by sympathisers within, and the rebels entered. They targeted properties associated with their enemies: the palace of the Savoy (belonging to John of Gaunt, the king’s uncle and the most powerful noble in England) was burned to the ground. Law courts and legal records — the documents that defined serfs’ legal obligations — were destroyed. The Tower of London was breached on 13–14 June 1381. The rebels dragged out Archbishop Sudbury — who as Lord Chancellor was associated with the hated poll taxes — and executed him on Tower Hill, along with the Lord Treasurer Robert Hales.
John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, was the most powerful noble in England and effectively one of the men guiding government during the minority of Richard II. He was widely blamed for corruption and for the direction of the failing French Wars. He also represented the most extreme end of noble privilege. Burning his palace — though the rebels reportedly forbade actual looting, turning violence towards a symbolic act of destruction rather than theft — was a powerful political statement about who the rebels held responsible for their condition.
The Meeting at Mile End, 14 June 1381
On 14 June 1381, Richard II rode out to meet the rebels at Mile End. Facing thousands of angry rebels, the fourteen-year-old king showed remarkable composure. He agreed to the rebels’ principal demands: the abolition of serfdom, a fixed low rent for land, freedom to trade, and a pardon for all the rebels. Richard even had charters drawn up on the spot granting these terms.
Many Essex rebels, satisfied that their demands had been met, began to leave London. But the revolt was not yet over. The Kentish contingent under Wat Tyler remained, with additional demands. Tyler and his followers held the city, and the key confrontation was yet to come.
At Mile End on 14 June 1381, Richard II promised the rebels the abolition of serfdom, the freedom to trade and a pardon for all participants. He had charters drawn up immediately — but these promises were all subsequently withdrawn after the revolt was suppressed.
Smithfield and the Death of Wat Tyler, 15 June 1381
The following day, 15 June 1381, Richard II met the Kentish rebels at Smithfield. Wat Tyler rode forward alone to present the rebels’ demands, which went beyond the concessions at Mile End: the distribution of Church wealth, the abolition of all lordship except the king’s, and equality before the law. During the tense negotiations, a confrontation broke out. Tyler was struck by the Mayor of London, William Walworth, and fatally stabbed. He died at the scene.
In the moment of confusion that followed, Richard II rode forward and addressed the rebels directly: “You shall have no captain but me.” Whether through the king’s authority, the shock of Tyler’s death, or the arrival of loyalist forces from the city, the rebel army dispersed. With Tyler dead and the leadership gone, the revolt in London collapsed.
Revolt continued in Norfolk, Suffolk, Hertfordshire and other parts of England through June 1381. Henry Despenser, Bishop of Norwich, led a military force that brutally suppressed the rebellion in East Anglia. John Ball was captured, tried and executed in July 1381. Royal commissions travelled the counties, trying and executing rebel leaders — historians estimate that several hundred people were killed in the reprisals, though precise numbers are uncertain. The charters granted at Mile End were revoked. Richard II, when pressed to honour his promises, reportedly said: “Villeins you are and villeins you shall remain.” Whether he used these exact words is disputed, but the sentiment expressed the ruling class’s determination to restore the old order.