14th Century… Poetry: The Rebellion of Wat Tyler and Jack Straw (c.1612) 17 May 2020 Unlike that other medieval hero and man of the people, Robin Hood, Wat Tyler does not enjoy an extensive ballad "afterlife." This song, first published in The Garland of Delight…
15th Century… Review: Alexander Kaufman’s “Jack Cade Rebellion of 1450: A Sourcebook” (2019) 3 Dec 2019 By Stephen Basdeo Alexander L. Kaufman, ed. The Jack Cade Rebellion of 1450: A Sourcebook. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2020. (xii), 257pp. ISBN 978-1-4985-5029-1. £65 (RRP) As the several endorsements…
14th Century… John Ball’s Letter to the Essex Men 24 Aug 2019 By Stephen Basdeo In the summer of 1381, the people of England had had enough: disease, war, and low harvests had caused great discontent throughout the land. The Statute of…
1381… The History of Thomas Walsingham’s Historia Anglicana traced through Reappearances of Jack Straw’s Last Dying Speech 5 Jul 2019 A paper delivered at the International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, 1–5 July 2019 by Stephen Basdeo The so-called Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 was widely reported in various chronicles. The…
1381… The Last Dying Speech and Confession of Jack Straw 23 Sep 201723 Sep 2017 In 1381, one of the most important events in English medieval history occurred: the Peasants’ Revolt. Under the leadership of a former soldier, Wat Tyler (d. 1381), a radical priest,…
1381… An Early Socialist History of the Peasants’ Revolt: Charles Edmund Maurice’s “Lives of English Popular Leaders of the Middle Ages” (1875) 15 Jul 201717 Jul 2018 By Stephen Basdeo While researching my book, The Life and Legend of a Rebel Leader: Wat Tyler (2018),[i] I came across an interesting history book, written by Charles Edmund Maurice…
