Thames Bridge Gates

London

London, England.

Commons of London

London

London, England.

John Ball

John Ball (? - 1381), a radical priest and leader of the Peasants' Revolt in 1381.

Jack Straw

Jack Straw, a rebel leader during the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 in England. It has been suggested that this enigmatic rebel was actually an alias adopted by Wat Tyler.

Wat Tyler

Wat Tyler (? - 1381), the most famous of the leaders of the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 in England.

London

London, England.

Savoy Palace

The Savoy palace, a residence of John of Gaunt, the duke of Lancaster. The palace fronted the Strand on the site of the present Savoy Theatre and Savoy Hotel that memorialise its name. The rebels of the Great Revolt of 1381 razed the palace to the ground, and, according to Anthony Goodman, the manner in which Lancaster's precious jewels and plate were destroyed rather than looted shows the indignation which animated the rioters.

Westminster

Westminster, to the west of London, England, where the royal palace was located.

Palace of Westminster

Savoy Palace

The Savoy palace, a residence of John of Gaunt, the duke of Lancaster. The palace fronted the Strand on the site of the present Savoy Theatre and Savoy Hotel that memorialise its name. The rebels of the Great Revolt of 1381 razed the palace to the ground, and, according to Anthony Goodman, the manner in which Lancaster's precious jewels and plate were destroyed rather than looted shows the indignation which animated the rioters.

Order of the Knights Hospitallers of St John of Jerusalem

The Monastic Order of the Knights Hospitallers of St John of Jerusalem; also known as the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes, of Malta or Knights Hospitaller.

Order of the Knights Hospitallers of St John of Jerusalem

The Monastic Order of the Knights Hospitallers of St John of Jerusalem; also known as the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes, of Malta or Knights Hospitaller.

Flemish

Lombards

London

London, England.

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.

France

The kingdom of France, populated up until the Black Death of 1348-9 by 12-16 millions souls and including up to the Treaty of Brétigny (1360) the Ile-de-France together with the apanages of Normandy, Anjou, Bourbon, Champagne, Valois, Auvergne and Languedoc, plus a number of important fiefs such as the counties of Blois, Nevers and Foix, and (from 1349) Montpellier and the Dauphiné; diminished from 1354 by the growing activity and influence in the Cotentin and other parts of Normandy of the king of Navarre, Charles of Evreux, and by English conquests resulting in an enlarged duchy of Guyenne (essentially Gascony; will become the principality of Aquitaine) stretching from the borders of the great and at times pro-English duchy of Brittany to the Pyrenees (save for the neutral county of Béarn) and eastwards to embrace the Poitou, Limousin and Rouergue (on the border with the Languedoc); Ponthieu and Guines are also in English hands. The French re-conquest under Charles V and Du Guesclin progressively drives the English from the realm, leaving them (by 1370-80) the ports of Calais, Cherbourg, Brest, Bordeaux and Bayonne, and a much-reduced Aquitaine. Brittany returns to French allegiance from 1365 onwards (Treaty of Guérande).

Wat Tyler

Wat Tyler (? - 1381), the most famous of the leaders of the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 in England.

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.

London

London, England.

London

London, England.

St Katherine's by the Tower

St Katherine's by the Tower, a medieval church and hospital next to the Tower of London, founded in 1148 by Matilda of Boulogne (?1105 - 1152), wife of king Stephen of England, on land acquired from the Augustinian priory of Holy Trinity, Aldgate. It was demolished in 1825 to build St Katharine's Docks.

Tower of London

Tower of London, royal palace and fortress in central London, England.

King Richard II of England (d. 1400)

Richard was born on 6 January 1367 in Bordeaux. Froissart called him Richard of Bordeaux after his place of birth. He was the second son of Edward, the Black Prince, prince of Wales and Aquitaine, and Joan of Kent. After the death of his elder brother Edward in 1372, and of his father, in 1376, Richard was created prince of Wales, duke of Cornwall and earl of Chester on 20 November 1376. He succeeded to his grandfather, King Edward III the following year, and became king on 22 June 1377. He reigned as king of England until 1399, when he was forced to abdicate by his cousin Henry Bolingbroke. Richard married his first wife, Anne of Bohemia, on 14 January 1382. In 1396, two years after the death of his first wife, he married Isabella, daughter of the French king, Charles VI.

Simon Sudbury, archbishop of Canterbury

Simon Sudbury (c. 1316 - 1381), archbishop of Canterbury; son of Nigel Thebaud and his wife Elizabeth. As chancellor he bore the responsibility for the imposition of the third poll tax that ignited the Great Revolt of 1381, and was therefore one of the principal targets for the rebels during the uprising. Sudbury had taken refuge in the Tower of London at the outbreak of the revolt, but the rebel mob seized him from the Tower together with the treasurer Sir Robert Hales, and beheaded them both on Tower Hill.

England

Island kingdom bounded to the west by the Marcher lordships and the (still contested) principality of Wales conquered by Edward I; English lordships included parts of modern south Wales (from southern Pembrokeshire through Swansea, Cardiff and on towards Gloucester in England); bounded to the north by the kingdom of Scotland, to the east by the North Sea and to the south by the Channel; included Somerset, Devon and Cornwall to the south-west. Population up to the Black Death of 1348-9 approximately 4 million souls.

Manuscript reading: Calermille

Emended reading: Calerwille

Acad. royale, vol. 9, p. 400

SHF vol. 10, p. 108

Lettres gothiques, vol. 1, p. 1013

Acad. royale, vol. 9, p. 401

SHF vol. 10, p. 109