Revolt: The Story of England’s First Protest

In 1990, a march in protest of the government’s poll tax turned violent as police and marchers clashed. The Poll Tax Riots became one of the most infamous protests in recent British history. But this wasn’t the first time protesters rioted and set fires in London to show their anger at a poll tax. In fact, 600 years earlier, the first mass uprising in English history was prompted by a very similar situation. In this episode, we use the medieval records in our collection to uncover the real story of the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381.

SFX Credit: https://freesound.org/people/duckduckpony/sounds/204046/

 Documents from The National Archives used in this episode:

C 67/29; JUST 1/400 m.21; KB 9/166/1 m.2; KB 27/482 rex rot. 39d; KB 27/483 rot. 40; KB 27/486 rex rot. 5