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Power and the People in Britain, c1170 to the Present Day

Medieval revolt and royal authority

  • 3 things to know
  • Paper 2 section A

Overview

The Black Death and the Statute of Labourers, villeinage, the poll tax, John Ball, Wat Tyler's march on London, the rebels, Richard II's promises at Mile End, Smithfield, and what the revolt changed.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

What did it mean to be a villein?

Who and when

Who was John Ball, and what did he preach?

Numbers

Who led the rebels from Kent, and where did they march?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    How had the Black Death changed the bargaining position of ordinary labourers?

    Model answer

    It killed something like a third of the population, so workers were scarce and survivors could demand higher wages or move to a lord who would pay them.

  2. 2

    What did the Statute of Labourers of 1351 do?

    Model answer

    It pegged wages at their level before the plague and made it an offence to demand more, to refuse work offered, or to leave a manor for a better-paying one.

  3. 3

    What did it mean to be a villein?

    Model answer

    An unfree peasant tied to his lord's manor, owing set days of labour on the lord's land and needing permission to move, to marry or to have his son schooled.

  4. 4

    Which tax provoked the rising of 1381?

    Model answer

    The poll tax, charged at a shilling a head in its third demand and taken at the same rate from a labourer as from a wealthy man, followed by commissioners sent to hunt down evaders.

  5. 5

    Who was John Ball, and what did he preach?

    Model answer

    A radical priest who told crowds that all men were created equal, asking who was the gentleman when Adam dug and Eve spun, and that lords held their position by no right of God.

  6. 6

    Who led the rebels from Kent, and where did they march?

    Model answer

    Wat Tyler, who led them through Canterbury to London in June 1381, where they joined the men of Essex outside the city.

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