Richard Lyons (d. 1381)

Richard Lyons (? - 1381), merchant and financier of London, beheaded by the rioters during the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. According to Roger L. Axworthy, he was possibly a Fleming who settled in London. Froissart suggests that Lyons was killed as an act of revenge for and earlier slight upon Wat Tyler, one of the leaders of the Peasants' Revolt, Lyons having possibly been his servant or squire during the earl of Buckingham's expedition to France. But Axworthy notes that a much more plausible explanation for his beheading by the rebels would have been his lasting unpopularity from the days when he had been convicted of extortion and fraud.

Bibliographic References:

For his life and career, see Roger L. Axworthy, 'Lyons, Richard (d. 1381)', in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison (Oxford: OUP, 2004); online ed., ed. Lawrence Goldman, January 2008, http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/52191; For Lyons' wealth and fortunes, see A. R. Myers, 'The Wealth of Richard Lyons', in Essays in Medieval History presented to Bertie Wilkinson, eds T. A. Sandqvist and M. R. Powicke (Toronto, 1969), 301-29.

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