OTD in 1381, The Peasants’ Revolt, also named Wat Tyler’s Rebellion began. The revolt had various causes, including the socio-economic & political tensions generated by the Black Death in the 1340s, the high taxes resulting from the conflict with France during the Hundred Years’ War. A wide spectrum of rural society, including many local artisans & village officials, rose up in protest, burning court records & opening the local gaols. The rebels sought a reduction in taxation, an end to the system of unfree labour known as serfdom, & the removal of the King’s senior officials & law courts.

“The Peasants’ Revolt had figured in Cockney tradition from at Elizabethan times. It was frequently depicted in the outdoors theatre … More

In 18th-century London the spectacle of a hanging was not simply a form of punishing transgressors. Rather is evidently served the more sinister purpose – for privileged ruling class – of forcing the poor population of London to accept the criminalization of customary rights & new forms of private property.

Peter Linebaugh’s groundbreaking history has become an inescapable part of any understanding of the rise of capitalism. In eighteenth-century London … More

The law locks up the man or woman. Who steals the goose from off the common. But leaves the greater villain loose. Who steals the common from off the goose.

Stop, Thief! : The Commons, Enclosures, and Resistance – Peter Linebaugh In this majestic tour de force, celebrated historian Peter … More