The Peasants' Uprising in Medieval English Literature
So, when you think of eras known for their pervasive social equality, we're pretty sure you don't think of the Middle Ages. This was a time when there were huge inequities between "the haves" (the rich aristocracy and the higher-ups in the Church) and "the have-nots" (your average peasant on the street).
The Black Death was a terrible, terrible disease indeed. That itty bitty Plague killed like a third of Europe's population. But there was a silver lining there, too, because the Plague really paved the way for the Peasants' Uprising. Because so many people died as that disease swept across the lands—especially poorer people—the workers who remained were able to ask for more money from their bosses.
Those rich people still needed peasants to grind their grain, do their field work, weave their clothes, and brew their ale, right? So the surviving peasant class were, for the first time, holding some bargaining chips when it came to securing a good wage. This was a case of supply and demand in action.
Of course, "the haves" weren't too happy with this situation. They didn't like the peasants trying to rise above their "station." So they got Parliament to pass some laws that limited the amount of money workers could ask for. Then, around 1377 the British government passed a poll tax, which was basically a tax the king and nobility charged people just for being alive.
Not exactly fair, right? To add insult to injury, the proceeds were being used to finance the war against France, as well as funding wealthy folks' extravagant lifestyles.
Unsurprisingly, the peasants soon got fed up. In 1381, they decided to act. In a very violent, Occupy London-type movement, thousands of rebels stormed the city. They destroyed property and killed people who got in their path.
While not many authors of medieval literature deal with this uprising explicitly in their works, it shows up in more subtle ways. Class tensions are never far beneath the surface of medieval works. Chaucer's Canterbury pilgrims give us a good example of this tension; did you ever notice how they're always bickering?
We'd be bickering too, if we had to pay a tax just for breathing air. Ugh.
Chew on This
While Chaucer doesn't usually incorporate a lot of current events into his texts, he does sneak in one reference to the Peasants' Uprising. In The Nun's Priest's Tale, at line 628, the narrator mentions "Jack Straw," who was one of the rebel leaders of the Uprising. Plus, since Chaucer lived over one of the main gates where people entered the city of London, he likely witnessed some of the Uprising first-hand. Are there other moments in The Nun's Priest's Tale that make you think of the kind of chaos you'd see at a massive protest? How about in any of the other Canterbury Tales?
Interestingly enough, the leaders of the 1381 uprising turned to medieval literature to help communicate their points. William Langland's long allegorical poem Piers Plowman was appropriated by the rebels because it was sympathetic to the poor. And its main character, the plowman, was held up as the model of a good medieval worker. Rebel leader John Ball mentions this work in his letter complaining about the 1%'s egregious exploitation of the peasant class.