60 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE 



Although there were scattered risings in a large 

 number of counties, the main revolt of the country 

 people took place in Kent, Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk and 

 Cambridgeshire, in which counties the movement was 

 widespread and well organized. At first the rising 

 appears to have been free from any great excesses, 

 the peasants themselves must have been of a naturally 

 orderly character ; but the discontented and degraded 

 people of the nation appear to have collected around 

 the peasant bands, therefore it is not surprising that 

 before the revolt was over there was much sacking and 

 burning of houses and killing of innocent men. 



In the early days of the revolt the men of Kent, led 

 by Wat Tyler of Essex and John Hales of Mailing, 

 took the lead. They promptly occupied Canterbury, 

 liberated John Ball, who was in the archbishop's prison, 

 and then marched on London. Such lawyers as they 

 caught on their way were put to death, stewards' houses 

 were burnt and the manorial records of their hated 

 obligations were destroyed. The men reached London 

 and entered the city without opposition. Indeed the 

 city craftsmen and some, at least, of the leading 

 citizens seem to have been on their side. Meanwhile 

 the Essex men had concentrated at Mile End, and 

 the Hertfordshire men, under William Grindecobbe, at 

 Highbury and St. Albans. London was substantially 

 in the hands of the peasant forces. The boy king, 

 Richard II, v/ho had already attempted to address the 

 Kentish contingent from a boat on the river, pro- 

 ceeded on a Friday in June to Mile End, where he 

 made to a large assembly consisting mostly of Essex 

 men, certain definite promises. Serfdom would be 

 abolished, services and obligations set aside and all 

 holders of land were apparently to become free tenants 



