The English Rising of 1381

by R.H. Hilton (Editor)

This book contains eight articles, six of which are based on papers contributed to a commemoration conference organised by the Past and Present Society in 1981. Two further articles and an introduction are contributed by other experts. They explore the various dimensions of the rising of 1381: the discontent of peasants and townspeople who became politicised in response to government tax demands; reasons for the attitudes of the subordinated classes to the law, which they perceived as being the instrument of their oppressors; the response of the ruling class and its government to one of the most coherent challenges to feudal order in the Middle Ages. In addition, two contributions on social movements in fourteenth-century France and Italy show that the rising can be regarded as a symptom of the general crisis of European feudal society in the later Middle Ages.

Genres: History, British Literature, Nonfiction

222 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1950

About the author

Rodney Howard Hilton FBA (17 November 1916 – 7 June 2002) was an English Marxist historian. Hilton had a long teaching career at the University of Birmingham where he specialised in late medieval English History and the transition from feudalism to capitalism.

Reviews

[Larn E]

A very narrative version of Hilton’s scholarship.

[Øystein Brekke · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well written and readable apologia for the 1381 rebels. The main thesis is that earlier historians had too uncritically accepted the biased primary sources' characterisations of the rebels as wild, crazed, bloodthirsty and chaotic, whereas the authors argue that the rising was well planned and executed, with clearly defined, though ambitious, goals.
I don't know have the knowledge to judge the authors' thesis, but it is argued well, and the descriptions are captivating.