Tyler’s Rebellion

Tyler’s Rebellion, often called the Peasants' Revolt, English uprising of 1381 led by an ex-soldier named Wat Tyler. Its immediate cause was popular resentment over the poll tax that had been imposed to finance a war with France. The insurgents, mostly laborers from the counties of Essex, Middlesex, Sussex, and Kent, stormed London on June 13 and, after much looting and killing, forced King Richard II to make several concessions, including abolition of the poll tax. The major part of the rebellion was crushed after Tyler was struck down by William Walworth, mayor of London, during negotiations on June 15. Many of the peasants were later executed and most of the concessions were revoked, although no more attempts were made to impose the poll tax. Tyler became a figure of legend and is the hero of the poem “Wat Tyler” (1794), by the British poet Robert Southey.