The Peasant's Revolt of 1381.

[byronius]

Wat Tyler's Rebellion

Wat Tyler, Jack Straw, and John Ball rise up with thousand of English serfs to demand basic rights and fair treatment from the medieval 1%. King Richard II rides out among them and promises them everything they ask for.

Later, at a meeting between Wat Tyler and the King, the Lord Mayor of London strikes off Wat's head for his impudence in questioning the right of the nobly-born to rule the world, and the rest of the peasant leaders and many of the followers are then hunted down and murdered with their families.

In his book Chronicles, the monk and writer Jean Froissart calls the three peasant leaders 'wicked, bad men' and implies that they were all criminals and rapists bent only on the taking of the virtues of nobly-born women. 'Wicked', 'bad', 'evil', 'dirty', 'dark', 'cruel', 'small', 'ugly' -- these are some of the words he uses to describe the rebelling peasants. But these six hundred plus years later, he is clearly condemning himself as a paid shill for cruel masters, and as a black mark on his faith. He reeks of primitive Sean Hannity, of ill-gotten gains, blood money, and false witness. He is a bad and unholy monk.

Wat Tyler. Jack Straw. John Ball. These are the noble names, these are the honorable names. These were the men who dared demand their basic human rights, and who were killed and slandered for it by their 'owners'. Froissart writes about the other uprisings of his day, the French Maillotins, the Belgian Weavers Union led by Philip Van Artevelde -- but for Wat Tyler and Jack Straw, he reserves his most poisonous invective and twisted narrative, unwittingly revealing his own moral and spiritual bankruptcy.

And that's the point of my post: The Future Knows. And The Future Is Forever.

[dorkzilla]

1. who will be our generation's Simon of Sudbury?

I can think of a few I would volunteer...

[freshwest]

2. Read this a number of years ago. Thanks for posting.

[DeSwiss]

3. An updated ''Blue Collar'' version.

K&R

[PADemD]

4. Born in Blood by John J. Robinson

A study of the Peasants Revolt of 1381. Robinson wondered how, in an age where there was no mass communication, the signal to peasants in various communities to revolt and march on London was spread. Excellent reviews at link:

http://www.amazon.com/Born-Blood-Lost-Secrets-Freemasonry/dp/0871316021/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=&qid=

[malaise]

5. Nice post

Rec