62 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE 



Parliament, convened in the following winter, sup- 

 ported the royal repudiation : the bondsmen were, in 

 the view of this authority, the 'goods of the lords 

 of the manors/ and such they must remain. But, in 

 coming to this decision, judgment was tempered with 

 mercy, for with some exceptions it was decided to 

 grant an amnesty to those who had taken part in 

 the movement. 



The Peasant Revolt was a remarkable movement ; 

 never before or since has the English peasantry com- 

 bined on so large a scale or been so well and success- 

 fully led. They were defeated by a political ruse 

 promises of freedom and reform, only made to be 

 repudiated at the first convenient moment. The 

 results were therefore slight in proportion to the 

 character of the rising. 



It is true that personal freedom was ultimately 

 attained, but the change came slowly ; indeed, serf- 

 dom continued in many villages until the 

 rei S n of Elizabeth > and occasionally to a 

 far later date. Another of the peasants' 

 proposals, the appropriation of Church land, was not 

 dealt with for many generations, whilst the peasants 

 failed to secure what was perhaps their most important 

 object, the general commutation of services and the 

 institution of permanent tenancies at a fixed rent. Had 

 the peasants succeeded throughout England as a whole 

 in obtaining this particular demand, permanency of 

 tenure would have been secured. As a result, the loss 

 of land that accompanied enclosures in the following 

 centuries could hardly have occurred, and the creation 

 of a mass of destitute and landless people might 

 have been avoided. 



