"The Great Rising is a re-interpretation of the revolt, the rebels and their often colourful leaders, and is the first new history for nearly one hundred years. Alastair Dunn charts the causes of the Great Rising, and examines how the burgeoning economic expectations of the generation succeeding the Black Death were frustrated by the landlords' determined defense of serfdom, and the growing burden imposed upon the people by the crown, culminating in the hated Poll Taxes. He asks whether the Great Rising had a coherent set of aims linking its participants in different parts of England, follows the dramatic story of the rebels in London, and highlights the largely forgotten, but equally exciting story of rebellion in other parts of England."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

This volume eschews general narrative history and consists of articles, most of which were presented to a conference organized in 1981 by the Past and Present Society.

"This lengthy and detailed collection of original documents provides a basic handbook to the story, significance and problems of the English Peasants' Revolt of 1381. Although one of the most famous and dramatic episodes in English history, the great revolt of 1381 is still a largely unsolved mystery. Hitherto the original authorities for the history of the rebellion have been allowed to rest in unnecessary obscurity: and it seems due time to restore the Peasants' Revolt to the comments of its participants and observers. These extracts therefore exploit all the available types of evidence for the history of the 1381 Revolt, ranging from the trial records of captured rebels to contemporary poems. Fortunately the great majority of the primary chronicles for the rebellion, as well as a representative selection from surviving governmental and legal archives, can be presented within the covers of one book. With few exceptions these documents have been especially translated from the original Latin or Norman-French texts - almost all of which are difficult of access or out of print. In several cases translations have been made directly from unpublished records in the Public Record Office, London. The Peasants' Revolt has been examined primarily for its own sake; and at the heart of this book lie the various and often contradictory accounts of the outbreak of the rising in Kent and Essex, the rebels entry into London and the final great confrontation between the young Richard I| and Wat Tyler at Smithfield. But considerable attention is paid to the risings in East Anglia and elsewhere in England as well as to the political and social background of the revolt. The suppression and aftermath of the rebellion are also illustrated in detail. Indirectly this collection of documents therefore provides an insight into the economic status and social aspirations of the late mediaeval English peasantry. The work includes detailed chronological tables (the most ambitious yet attempted), a select guide to sources, three maps and a detailed bibliography. The author's introduction discusses the implications of the revolt in general terms and its significance as an early example of a pre-industrial popular movement. A warning is sounded against any too crude a sociology of rebellion; and the book ends with a series of very different and often hilariously misconceived interpretations of the Peasants' Revolt - from Gower and Froissart, Thomas Paine and Robert Southey to Engels and William Morris."-Publisher.

`An excellent selection of sources for the rebellion.' Bibliographies Handbook One of the most famous and dramatic episodes in English history, the great revolt of 1381 is still a largely unsolved mystery. The new edition of this lengthy and detailed collection of original documents provides a basic handbook to the story, significance and problems of the English Peasants' Revolt of 1381.

This account of the "peasant revolt" of 1381 demonstrates that the rebellion was not an uncontrolled, inarticulate explosion of peasant resentment, but an informed and tactical claim to literacy and rule. It focuses on six brief texts by the rebels themselves.