1381: The Year of the Peasants' Revolt

by Juliet Barker

Overview

Written with the fluency readers have come to expect from Juliet Barker, 1381: The Year of the Peasants’ Revolt provides an account of the first great popular uprising in England and its background, and paints on a broad canvas a picture of English life in medieval times. Skeptical of contemporary chroniclers’ accounts of events, Barker draws on the judicial sources of the indictments and court proceedings that followed the rebellion. This emphasis offers a fresh perspective on the so-called Peasants’ Revolt and gives depth and texture to the historical narrative. Among the book’s arguments are that the rebels believed they were the loyal subjects of the king acting in his interests, and that the boy-king Richard II sympathized with their grievances.

Barker tells how and why a diverse and unlikely group of ordinary men and women from every corner of England—from servants and laborers living off wages, through the village elite who served as bailiffs, constables, and stewards, to the ranks of the gentry—united in armed rebellion against church and state to demand a radical political agenda. Had it been implemented, this agenda would have transformed English society and anticipated the French Revolution by four hundred years. 1381: The Year of the Peasants’ Revolt is an important reassessment of the uprising and a fascinating, original study of medieval life in England’s towns and countryside.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674744509
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	11/24/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	543
File size:	32 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Juliet Barker is one of Britain’s most distinguished literary biographers and medievalists and author of Agincourt: Henry V and the Battle That Made England.

Table of Contents

Contents Preface A Note to the Text Chapter 1. The end of an era Chapter 2. The state of the nation Chapter 3. Landlords and tenants Chapter 4. Urban society Chapter 5. Wars and taxes Chapter 6. Resistance Chapter 7. Essex and Kent arise Chapter 8. To London Chapter 9. Mile End Chapter 10. Smithfield Chapter 11. St Albans and Bury St Edmunds Chapter 12. Ely, Huntingdon and Cambridge Chapter 13. Norfolk Chapter 14. North and south Chapter 15. Suppression Chapter 16. The aftermath Chapter 17. The legacy Appendix 1. Wat Tyler Appendix 2. Jack Straw Appendix 3. John Balle Appendix 4. John Balle’s letters Notes Bibliography Index Picture Credits

Editorial Reviews

Barker’s book is a thorough and workmanlike study…offering a close look at what things were actually like.

New York Review of Books - Eric Christiansen

Barker’s thorough, clear-eyed and intelligent new volume adds much to the field: packed with vivid pen portraits of the rebels and the men they hunted, and with several interesting new arguments about key figures and moments in the rebellion… She succeeds in painting a vivid and exciting portrait of a country in angry upheaval. It is as timely subject matter as ever.

Sunday Times - Dan Jones

Brilliant… [Barker] gives a richly detailed account of the England of 1381 based on painstaking detective work, and resurrects from obscurity the ordinary men and women who enflamed the country for a few weeks in June.

The Times - Ben Wilson

An accomplished historian, Barker has produced a carefully researched, vividly narrated account of the most serious and widespread popular uprising in English history, the so-called Peasants’ Revolt of 1381… Barker’s portrait of England in the era of the great uprising shows how the exploitation of the majority of the population by the rich and powerful elite finally became intolerable to those who believed themselves to be oppressed, and the socioeconomic tension produced an explosion… This is a fascinating resource for anyone interested in late medieval English history.

Choice - A. C. Reeves

Praise for Juliet Barker’s Agincourt: Henry V and the Battle That Made England: [Barker’s] book is quite wonderfully vivid, clear and involving. She never forgets that a military campaign is made up of human beings.

The Economist

Juliet Barker has written a splendid account of the events of 1381 and their wider context, enlivened with many arresting anecdotes… Throughout the book, Barker challenges conventional assumptions about the uprising. She stresses how little is actually known of the alleged leaders of the revolt.

London Review of Books - David Carpenter

The events of 1381 have long fascinated historians… In her deeply researched and exceptionally well-illustrated book, Juliet Barker indeed tells the story, but unpicks many of the assumptions behind it.

Books & Culture - Tom Shippey

Praise for Juliet Barker’s Agincourt: Henry V and the Battle That Made England: [A] thoroughly engrossing study of Henry and the battle that made him… [Barker’s] expertise greatly enriches the narrative.

New York Times - William Grimes