Inside the Peasants Revolt

Matt Lewis (0:02)

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Hello, I'm Matt Lewis. Welcome to Gone Medieval from History Hit, the podcast that delves into the greatest millennium in human history. We've got the most intriguing mysteries, the gobsmacking details and latest groundbreaking research, from the Vikings to the printing press, from kings to popes to the Crusades. We cross centuries and continents to delve into rebellions, plots and murders, to find the stories big and small that tell us how we got here. Find out who we really were with Gone Medieval.

On Thursday the 13th of June, 1381, Marjorie Tawney tried to push her way through the crowds that seemed to fill every street in London. It was the feast of Corpus Christi, so there was going to be crowds, but Marjorie had never seen anything like this in the city. Her son, a grown man now, holds her hand like he did as a child, both frightened of being separated and swallowed by this mass of humanity. The king, the teenage Richard II, has let it be known that he will hear the legal case of anyone with a complaint if they will bring it to him at the Tower. Marjorie has a complaint. The Dean of the College of Windsor owed her late husband money, money she now desperately needs, money he won't pay. Marjorie and her son, with no hope of bringing an expensive legal case, had despaired. But now the young king offers hope, and she will take it.

But it isn't just the crowds that are the problem. They aren't here for Corpus Christi. They're here threatening to overturn the government of England. Though is it a threat if Marjorie, like so many others in London, agrees with the tens of thousands who have come out from the countryside to seek justice? Not fleeting restitution for one misdemeanour, but the permanent correction of generations of unfairness.

It should be a happy time, of the promise of a brighter future.

How can the handful of rich men, noble as they may be, resist the tide of people moving against them? The crowds are only ever a moment away from becoming a mob. And it isn't just the number of people making Marjorie's progress to the tower difficult. Somewhere nearby, something is on fire. Word runs through the people like the fire itself. It's the Savoy Palace, the home of the king's uncle. And other places too, they say. Marjorie's son grips her hand. He's trying to pull her back, but Marjorie urges herself on, her free hand pushing away through the ever-denser thicket of bodies. Smoke rolls down the street, carried on the light summer breeze. It fills Marjorie's nose and makes her cough. It stings her eyes so they glow red and stream with tears. Holding her sleeve over her mouth, she takes another step closer to the tower, closer to the king, closer to justice and the salvation of her family.

But her son doesn't move with her. He's planted his feet. She looks back at him, desperation painted across her tear-stained face. He shakes his head. She opens her mouth to protest, but only a hacking cough escapes. He shakes his head again. She sees his mouth move, though she can hear no words above the clamour around them.

Not today, it looks like he's saying. Tomorrow, mother. Tomorrow. She knows he's right, though she hates it too. These people are here to fix the world, but they're keeping her little one broken for longer. She gives in to the draw of her son's hand, and they melt back. From the crowds, from the flames, from the smoke. And, for now, from justice.

But Marjorie will try again tomorrow, and she will be heard. I'm here to tell you, she will be heard, and she will win her case, though justice comes at the most brutal cost for her.

This is just one real story from inside the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 Today I'm delighted to shine a light deeper into the uprising by talking to author AK. Blakemore about her brand new novel, Doom Painting, which pulls readers into the heart of the complex and fast-moving Peasants' Revolt. Welcome to Gone Medieval, Amy. It's great to have you with us.

A.K. Blakemore (5:25)