When one thinks of medieval heroes I would think that Robin Hood, or King Arthur would come to mind. However few who are not well versed in medieval history would think of Wat Taylor and Jack Straw. These were two of the men who lead the Peasants revolt in 1381.
The gist of the story is that the Black Plague killed a whole lot of people. Because of all the peasant deaths many Lords were short on laborers and so they started encouraging peasants to move from their village to seek a better paying job with them. Well it was illegal for peasants to move without their current Lord's permission. She because of the competing between Lords to get the now sparse peasants a bunch of strict laws were made and enforced. These were called the Statute of Laborours.
In addition to that a new poll tax was introduced, and that was absolutely the last straw. So Taylor and Straw and 60,000 men marched on London with a petition to be free basically. They wanted to be able to provide food for their families, make a living wage, and build homes.
It really did not go as planned. King Richard II was 14, but he agreed to talk to them, however he could not get to them in a timely manor, so everyone started rioting. When Wat actually met the King, he was killed, and the rest of the leaders were killed too. Their demands were not met.
I do not know if Taylor and Straw could be considered heroes. They started out with such noble goals, but in the end turned into criminals. They used violence because they were too impatient to see peace work it's magic. I wonder if their demands would have been met if they had not turned violent. We see this kind of thing far too often even in our modern world. Perhaps we should learn a lesson from the Peasant's Revolt.
Source
http://www.medieval-life-and-times.info/medieval-history/the-peasants-revolt.htm
I am no supporter of violence, but I can see their reasoning in resorting to violence. The peasants were tired, they lived their lives for others, they had no control over anything pertaining to their well being. Their actions were probably easily justifiable for those living in that time.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that their violence is exactly what caused the King not to consider their petitio
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DeleteConsidering there was a series of councils that helped control the government at this time (he might've been king, but he was still too young to rule on his own), I doubt their petition would have been considered either way. Even without the revolt, it would have been more likely they would have had their petition thrown out instead of seriously considered.
ReplyDeleteYour point is valid, perhaps their petition would not have been considered, however would they have lost their lives? It seems like they decreased their chances through the violence (of course this is my opinion, there is no way of actually telling).
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