What do you think?
Rate this book
The Peasants Revolt 1381
Non-fiction.
The Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 was one of the greatest popular uprisings in medieval history, but most people, other than students of history, have probably only the sketchiest idea of the background to, and the main incidents and leading figures of, this important episode in our past. Keeping to the known facts, and with a minimum of theorizing, Mr. Philip Lindsay and Mr. Groves have written a concise, sober and immensely fascinating account of the Revolt, intended not for the scholar but for the intelligent man in the street with a taste for history.
The Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 was one of the greatest popular uprisings in medieval history, but most people, other than students of history, have probably only the sketchiest idea of the background to, and the main incidents and leading figures of, this important episode in our past. Keeping to the known facts, and with a minimum of theorizing, Mr. Philip Lindsay and Mr. Groves have written a concise, sober and immensely fascinating account of the Revolt, intended not for the scholar but for the intelligent man in the street with a taste for history.
184 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1974
About the author
Philip Lindsay
67 books5 followersPhilip Lindsay (1906–1958) was an Australian writer, who mostly wrote historical novels. He was the son of Norman Lindsay, an Australian artist.
His novels often treated his subject matter in a dark fashion, with his central characters depicted as brooding, depressed, or disturbed characters.
In addition, he did some work for the film industry. He was one of a team of writers on Song of Freedom and Under the Red Robe, and was a technical advisor on The Private Life of Henry VIII.
His novels often treated his subject matter in a dark fashion, with his central characters depicted as brooding, depressed, or disturbed characters.
In addition, he did some work for the film industry. He was one of a team of writers on Song of Freedom and Under the Red Robe, and was a technical advisor on The Private Life of Henry VIII.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
November 26, 2025
Philip Lindsay and Reg Groves’ 1950 book The Peasants’ Revolt 1381 successfully renders the titular uprising of late medieval England in bold and eclectically-sourced writing, bringing 1381 to the present through assiduously researched conclusions that, while wary of anachronism, ideology, and error, refuses to shy away from mapping the probable organization, function, motivations, and notable figures of the discontented peasantry and underclass.
Lindsay and Groves’ book divides into fourteen chapters loosely grouped into the causes of the rising, revolt itself, and aftermath and legacy. The book follows a (mostly) linear chronological direction, while within each chapter, the authors occasionally make - by their own admission - long digressions (e.g., pp. 113) to sharpen focus on the background of medieval scenery, such as the streets of London or the everyday economic and political realities of beggars and the poor. However, this structure overall aids the accessibility and coherence of the narrative and its arguments for medievalists and lay readers alike, allowing informative tangents to remain integrated in the body of the work and not lost in notes or appendices.
The first chapter, “The Peasant”, details the lives, duties, and rights of the peasant, the latter having to be largely asserted and fought for across medieval history. This section provides a fine introduction to what, by and large, rises to the forefront of Lindsay and Groves’ research, recreating the peasants as themselves without the boorish and savage (17) trappings the court and chronicles assigned them. The authors then detail past and present historians’ appraisals of the pestilence’s impact on English feudal life, arguing against both minimizing and exaggerating the affect of the plague on the economic position and value of the peasants’ labor, a necessary balance to strike in an evaluation of life for serfs and poor of the Middle Ages. Only by the third chapter do the authors detail “King and Parliament”, again highlighting the prominent position in their text for peasant over royalty, despite the relative dearth of direct sources for the serf and laborer. Here we encounter the courtly opposite of the peasant’s world and the clerical rebuttal to Ball and Wyclif’s more egalitarian philosophies: the scapegoating of Alice Perrers’ scandalous relationship with the king, St. Thomas Aquinas’ refusal to accept the equality of men for original sin, and The Book of St. Albans’ notion that “Seth was made a gentleman through his father’s and his mother’s blessing, and of the offspring of Seth Noah came, a gentleman by kind” as shield against “John Ball’s war cry: / When Adam delved and Eve span / Who was then a gentleman?” (46) The following chapters on “How the People Plotted”, “John Ball”, and “Revolt” emphasize the commons’ inter-county communication, the workmen’s combinations across all trades, and philosophies backing the revolt (John Ball’s sermons and “extensive balladry and folk poetry which survive only in fragments yet suggest a vast folk-allegory common to all the English people” (69)). These chapters help cement the authors’ compelling arguments for the public’s disciplined self-organization and widespread communication, despite punitive restrictions against travel and organization for the poor. The following chapters, “Trapped in the Tower”, “Negotiations”, and “Smithfield” describe Tyler’s army in London, the city itself, negotiations with the young King Richard II, and the death of Wat Tyler at the hands of Mayor Walworth. Finally, “Work for the Hangman”, “John Ball Dies”, “The People Fight On”, and “The Last Farewell” deal with the aftermath of the rebels’ subsequent dispersal and long-lasting repression especially in Kent and Essex, the killings of Jack Straw, John Wrawe, and John Ball, and the continued efforts of many counties to resist authorities long after Tyler’s death and the formal disbanding of the revolt.
A unique strength of the text becomes simultaneously a reservation against it: the descriptive and novel-esque depiction of people and places. Take for instance, the reader’s entrance alongside Wat Tyler and his people’s army in London: “Beautiful indeed, must that old London have been, Cheapside, with its great cross and two water-conduits, its rich centre. So broad was this street that tournaments were sometimes actually held in it…” (104) The authors certainly bring the events of the Late Middle Ages to life with their intermittent liberties of prose; however, the risk remains of getting swept away with one’s own literary momentum and ideological leanings. While the writers remain wary of tipping fully into the pitfalls of literary tangents, they’re certainly no stranger to skirting along their edge. In describing John Ball’s freedom from the archbishop’s prison in Maidstone, we’re regaled with details such as “John Ball, enfeebled by weeks of confinement, pale, blinking at the bright June sunshine after the gloom of the dungeon, may therefore have been at the conference held on the 7th where Tyler’s leadership was confirmed and the plan of campaign drawn up.” (86) Details like “blinking at the bright June sunshine” help to novelize events of 1381 but at the same time can’t help falling into the realm of conjecture.
With these reservations in mind, Groves and Lindsay’s work remains a key text for those digging for more information - both those gold nuggets as hard and certain as history can offer and those occasional conglomerates of educated conjecture - on the everyday peasants and laborers behind the 1381 Peasants’ (and various other workmen, as the authors caution us to remember (112)) Revolt some seven decades after the book’s first publication and some seven centuries after the revolt.
Lindsay and Groves’ book divides into fourteen chapters loosely grouped into the causes of the rising, revolt itself, and aftermath and legacy. The book follows a (mostly) linear chronological direction, while within each chapter, the authors occasionally make - by their own admission - long digressions (e.g., pp. 113) to sharpen focus on the background of medieval scenery, such as the streets of London or the everyday economic and political realities of beggars and the poor. However, this structure overall aids the accessibility and coherence of the narrative and its arguments for medievalists and lay readers alike, allowing informative tangents to remain integrated in the body of the work and not lost in notes or appendices.
The first chapter, “The Peasant”, details the lives, duties, and rights of the peasant, the latter having to be largely asserted and fought for across medieval history. This section provides a fine introduction to what, by and large, rises to the forefront of Lindsay and Groves’ research, recreating the peasants as themselves without the boorish and savage (17) trappings the court and chronicles assigned them. The authors then detail past and present historians’ appraisals of the pestilence’s impact on English feudal life, arguing against both minimizing and exaggerating the affect of the plague on the economic position and value of the peasants’ labor, a necessary balance to strike in an evaluation of life for serfs and poor of the Middle Ages. Only by the third chapter do the authors detail “King and Parliament”, again highlighting the prominent position in their text for peasant over royalty, despite the relative dearth of direct sources for the serf and laborer. Here we encounter the courtly opposite of the peasant’s world and the clerical rebuttal to Ball and Wyclif’s more egalitarian philosophies: the scapegoating of Alice Perrers’ scandalous relationship with the king, St. Thomas Aquinas’ refusal to accept the equality of men for original sin, and The Book of St. Albans’ notion that “Seth was made a gentleman through his father’s and his mother’s blessing, and of the offspring of Seth Noah came, a gentleman by kind” as shield against “John Ball’s war cry: / When Adam delved and Eve span / Who was then a gentleman?” (46) The following chapters on “How the People Plotted”, “John Ball”, and “Revolt” emphasize the commons’ inter-county communication, the workmen’s combinations across all trades, and philosophies backing the revolt (John Ball’s sermons and “extensive balladry and folk poetry which survive only in fragments yet suggest a vast folk-allegory common to all the English people” (69)). These chapters help cement the authors’ compelling arguments for the public’s disciplined self-organization and widespread communication, despite punitive restrictions against travel and organization for the poor. The following chapters, “Trapped in the Tower”, “Negotiations”, and “Smithfield” describe Tyler’s army in London, the city itself, negotiations with the young King Richard II, and the death of Wat Tyler at the hands of Mayor Walworth. Finally, “Work for the Hangman”, “John Ball Dies”, “The People Fight On”, and “The Last Farewell” deal with the aftermath of the rebels’ subsequent dispersal and long-lasting repression especially in Kent and Essex, the killings of Jack Straw, John Wrawe, and John Ball, and the continued efforts of many counties to resist authorities long after Tyler’s death and the formal disbanding of the revolt.
A unique strength of the text becomes simultaneously a reservation against it: the descriptive and novel-esque depiction of people and places. Take for instance, the reader’s entrance alongside Wat Tyler and his people’s army in London: “Beautiful indeed, must that old London have been, Cheapside, with its great cross and two water-conduits, its rich centre. So broad was this street that tournaments were sometimes actually held in it…” (104) The authors certainly bring the events of the Late Middle Ages to life with their intermittent liberties of prose; however, the risk remains of getting swept away with one’s own literary momentum and ideological leanings. While the writers remain wary of tipping fully into the pitfalls of literary tangents, they’re certainly no stranger to skirting along their edge. In describing John Ball’s freedom from the archbishop’s prison in Maidstone, we’re regaled with details such as “John Ball, enfeebled by weeks of confinement, pale, blinking at the bright June sunshine after the gloom of the dungeon, may therefore have been at the conference held on the 7th where Tyler’s leadership was confirmed and the plan of campaign drawn up.” (86) Details like “blinking at the bright June sunshine” help to novelize events of 1381 but at the same time can’t help falling into the realm of conjecture.
With these reservations in mind, Groves and Lindsay’s work remains a key text for those digging for more information - both those gold nuggets as hard and certain as history can offer and those occasional conglomerates of educated conjecture - on the everyday peasants and laborers behind the 1381 Peasants’ (and various other workmen, as the authors caution us to remember (112)) Revolt some seven decades after the book’s first publication and some seven centuries after the revolt.
Displaying 1 of 1 review