← This is History: History’s Greatest Fails
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- [00:00]
Dan Jones
Hello listeners.
- [00:01]
William Walworth
Dan here. Now, as you may have heard, we've just launched a this is History Patreon channel and with it a brand new membership tier. This is History Royal Favorite. You'll get access to ad free listening to the show our members only episodes every week, early access to new episodes plus a whole range of extra perks. As a Royal Favourite member you get access to the official this is History chat room where you can where I and the team will be dropping in throughout the season. You'll also get to vote on future topics, weigh in on polls and listener discussions and unlock exclusive extras all season long. Now is a great time to become a Royal Favourite member because I'm hosting a special Ask Me Anything on Patreon this month for Royal Favourite subscribers and the askers of our five favorite questions will earn a signed copy of my book Henry V. So join us on Patreon today to get in on the action. Head to patreon.com ThisIsHistory to start your free trial today. That's patreon.com ThisIsHistory let's get into the episode.
- [01:17]
Dan Jones
The men rowing the royal barge dip their oars into the water and pull hard. The boat, shaded from the summer sun by cloth bearing the Plantagenet royal arms, glides down the River Thames. Fish snap at the water's surface and birds call as they circle on the warm air. But aboard the barge, the passengers are anxious. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Simon Sudbury, whispers a prayer from downriver. A cacophony of chanting and yelling can be heard. It's coming from a huge crowd of the King's subjects. They're village folk, peasants who've travelled for days to get here. Some say there are 50,000 of them, some say 200,000. It's Thursday 13 June 1381, and for the last two weeks this lot have been up in arms and on the march. They're baying for the blood of every lord and minister in England, whom they blame for letting the realm go to the dogs. They have a list of names of traitors they want dead. It amounts to just about everyone connected with the government of the 14 year old King Richard II. Richard is aboard the barge too, yet he seems to be the only one who isn't a bag of nerves. In fact, Richard seems relaxed. That's because he knows he's the one man in power the rebels don't want to turn into dog meat. In fact, quite the opposite. These rebels have a password system to check whether people they meet on the road are down with the revolution, they ask, with whom hold you? The answer is with King Richard and the true Commons. Get the password right and the mob will let you by, even welcome you into their ranks. Get it wrong and they'll chop your head off. It may seem insane for Richard and his ministers to be rowing towards a rebel army who want almost all of them dead. But to Richard, this is the moment his life has been leading up to. His people are crying out to see him. How can it matter what happens to anyone else? It's that mindset that will make the teenage Richard one of the most dangerous kings England will ever have. This summer, it's going to turn England into a bloodbath. I'm Dan Jones and from Sony Music Entertainment. This is History Season seven of A Dynasty To Die For. Episode three Summer of Blood Lot.
- [04:48]
Kaley Cuoco
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- [05:13]
Narrator
Go to your happy price, Priceline.
- [05:18]
Dan Jones
There's a saying about narcissists. They want the authority of a king with the responsibility of a toddler. And while it would be bad historical practice to attempt a clinical diagnosis of Richard II from the distance of six and a half centuries, it's also a bit like if the royal slipper fits. The rebellion that breaks out in the summer of 1381, known as the Peasants Revolt, isn't exactly Richard's fault. Arguably, it isn't even slightly his fault. He's never been in command of his own policy. The adults have always kept him at arm's length from all major decisions because he's a child. All the same, Richard's personal interventions will set the direction of this revolt with lethal consequences. London will bear the scars of 1381 for years to come. So will Richard's cousin, Henry Bolingbroke. Others simply won't make it. But before we get to that, let's return to where we began. This episode on the royal barge cruising down the River Thames towards a baying mob. Their screams of abuse have Richard's ministers fearing for their skins. But it's music to the king's ears. The rebels gathered on the banks of the River Thames, have marched from the neighbouring counties of Essex and Kent. These places have been the epicentre of the revolt that broke out in response to a new poll tax. Townsmen and villagers have grown bold and organised, banding together to attack royal judges and tax collectors. They've burned down lords houses, broken prisoners out of jails and are calling for a full blown communist style revolution that will see lords and bishops done away with. If you want to understand exactly how royal tax policy had caused the whole of southeast England to go up in flames and the entire basis of social organisation to be questioned, we got deep into the weeds of that on last week's subscriber episode of this is History. Plus, by the middle of June, the rebels have massed just outside London and set up camp on a common known as Blackheath. They have a military leader called Wat Tyler, described by one chronicler as a cunning man endowed with much sense if he had decided to apply his intelligence to good purposes. They also have a spiritual guru, a notorious rabble rousing northern priest called John Ball. On Blackheath, BAAL preaches a legendary sermon. Sermon. He asks when Adam delved and Eve span, who then was the gentleman. In other words, all lordship is unnatural and God never wanted society to work this way. Word of Ball's rabble rousing has reached Richard's ministers and it doesn't strike them as a great starting point for negotiations. Which is why they go floating down the Thames to see just how bad things are. Will dangling Richard in front of the rebels be a way to calm their rage? Will it at least chill them out for a bit? As the royal barge comes in sight of the rebels, they realize it's the King and start cheering with excitement. Richard is loving it. Since he was a little kid, he's been used to people, parliaments, coronation congregations, worshipping him like he's the Messiah. When the peasants do it, he basically wants to go out and crowd surf. But his advisors and officials beg him to hold back while they send messengers ashore to gauge the vibe and parley with the rebels. It looks pretty hairy out there. When the messengers return, the news is as bad as it could be. The rebels send back their death list. It's the names of the people they want to kill. Top of the list is the King's uncle, John of Gaunt. Now Gaunt's actually away in Scotland dealing with raids on the northern border, but the next name's on the list. Archbishop Simon Sudbury, Treasurer Robert Hales, Chief Justice Robert Belknap who already had a lucky escape from rioters in Brentwood in episode two, they're all very much on the barge. Unsurprisingly, a heated debate breaks out. Sudbury and Hales beg Richard to understand they need to get out of their stat. According to one chronicler, they say Richard should not approach these bare legged ruffians, but rather take measures to abase their pride. Richard thinks otherwise. He wants to go and talk to the peasants in person. After much discussion, Sudbury and Hailes overrule Richard and order the oarsmen to turn the barge and head back upriver to the Tower of London, the safest fortress in the land. But that makes things much, much worse. When the royal barge silently turns and leaves, offering no traitors and no king, the rebels go wild. With Ra. Yelling in frustration, they start running along the riverbank looking for a route into London itself. By lunchtime, they're tearing down buildings in the suburb of Southwark. Southwark on the south of the river is cut off from the capital proper by London Bridge that has a drawbridge in the middle and so long as it's raised, no one can get across. London should be impossible to break into, even for tens of thousands of righteous rebels. The problem is there are rebel sympathizers inside the city and they're in the mood to bring the chaos home.
- [11:37]
William Walworth
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- [12:39]
Shopify Host
When we first launched my podcast, this.
- [12:41]
Dan Jones
Is History back in what now actually.
- [12:43]
Shopify Host
Feels like the Middle Ages, naturally all my accounts were worked out on an abacus, My scripts were written with quill on parchment and I sent them over to my producer on a raven it was a slow, overwhelming and lonely process with so many different hats to wear and so much to do with so little time. If only I'd had Shopify as my business partner to get me started and help me keep up with the pace. Finding the right tool that not only helps you out, but simplifies everything can be such a game changer for millions of businesses. That tool is Shopify. Turn your big business idea into With Shopify on your side, Sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.co.uk sell 23 try go to shopify.co.uk cell 23 try.
- [13:46]
Dan Jones
When evening falls on Thursday 13th June, Richard stands in a turret in the Tower of London and gazes out over his capital city. There's plenty for him to see dotted all over London. Flames are crackling and gusts of black smoke from burning buildings are billowing upwards. From time to time, there's a great crash as a building falls and loud cheers and laughter from rebels in the streets. Closer to the Tower, just across the moat, in fact, groups of rebels are singing and laughing, drunk on wine they've plundered. Suddenly, from the other side of the city, there comes a gigantic boom, followed by a crash. What could that be? Richard strains his eyes and can make out a huge dust cloud rising from somewhere outside the Western Wall. He thinks, hmm, yes, that must be his uncle John of Gaunt's palace, the Savoy. Whoopsie. Uncle John keeps gunpowder stored in the cellars, doesn't he? Someone must have set fire to it. In which case, that noise was the finest palace in London. Going well, kaboom. What Richard is looking out over is nothing short than London falling to a massive coordinated assault. Around lunchtime, dissidents in the city opened London Bridge and the rebels who were outside flooded in tens of thousands of them. To begin with, they were surprisingly disciplined. Commanded by Wat Tyler, they marched in something like battle order into the city and hit carefully selected targets. They burned houses belonging to hated royal officials. They broke open prisons. They attacked wealthy institutions like the Hospitallers, a military order similar to the now defunct Templars. But now they've gone to the Savoy, John of Gaunt's London hq, and leveled the place. Things are starting to get a lot less organized and a lot more drunk. Eventually, night falls and Richard leaves the tower turret and goes down to the council chamber to meet with Archbishop Sudbury and all the rest. When he gets there, he's met with scared, blank faces. For the first time in his life, all the adults in the room seem to be looking to him for guidance. So Richard tells them he has a plan. As one chronicler puts it, none of his advisors could or would give him any counsel. So the young king said he would order the mayor of the city to order everyone between the ages of 15 and 60 to go next morning to Mile End at 7 of the bell. Mile End is outside London's eastern gates. Richard wants to use himself as bait to draw the rebels out of the city. He tells his officials, who are all marked men, that this diversion will allow them to flee. But what he's going to do when he gets to Mile End, he doesn't seem ready to divulge. This is definitely not the least sketchy plan you could come up with. But in the circumstances, the shell shocked advisors, demoralized and in fear of their lives, agree to let Richard have a go.
- [17:29]
William Walworth
Go.
- [17:34]
Dan Jones
They turn in for the night. With London lit by the glow of more fires and the city air disturbed by the snoring of thousands of drunk ass out of towners exhausted by a day on the lash smashing up the capital. Tomorrow will be make or break. In the morning, Richard is up early and he sets out for Mile End accompanied by a few nobles he likes and trusts, along with the tough mayor of London, a fishmonger oligarch called William Walworth. They tell Sudbury Hales and all the other officials in the Tower to wait until they're gone and then sneak away any way they can. They ride in a chariot under armed guard all the way to Mile End and when they get there, they find the rebels eagerly waiting their moment to cut a deal. The mood is polite, civil even. Richard asks the rebel leaders what they want. By now they've got a more detailed manifesto than a list of heads. They want royal guarantees of freedom and a command fixing rents at a low price. Richard, who seems to be playing for time, says they can have everything they want. Then he goes dangerously off script. One chronicler records how the rebels at Mile End also ask Richard to let them go through the realm of England and catch all traitors. At this point, Richard ought to pull rank and tell them this is out of the question. But fatally, he says they can do as they please. This is reckless to the point of madness, because now the rebels believe that the King has authorized them to hunt down all their enemies and do what they like with them. For some of the most senior men in government, this is a death sentence.
- [19:54]
Narrator
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- [20:23]
Dan Jones
Henry Bolingbroke, 14 year old son of the hated John of Gaunt and first cousin of the King, is in the Tower of London when news arrives that Richard and has given his fateful permission for the rebels to hunt down traitors. Bolingbroke will never forget what happens next. The Tower of London is supposed to be the most secure fortress in England. Today it's anything but. Richard's plan to draw heat away from the Tower and let his ministers escape while he parlays at Mile End fails spectacularly. When the head of the government, Archbishop Sudbury, tries to escape by boat. He's spotted and has to flee back inside the Tower. From that point on, it's clear no one is going anywhere. Only now things are much worse because when word comes back about the traitor hunt, a huge crowd swells around the Town Tower. And just like the day before on London Bridge, it turns out there are rebel sympathizers inside the Tower. Either through fear or malice, they swing the gates open. The only time in history the Tower has ever been breached. The rebels pour in. Being a son of John of Gaunt, public enemy number one in rebel eyes, he Henry knows he's in big trouble, so he hides in a cupboard only to be saved by a soldier in the Tower who pulls him out and manages to smuggle him away and keep him safe. If you want to hear more about that dicey escape, you can find an interview with Henry's biographer, Helen Castor in our back catalogue. Look for in the Tyrant and the Usurper with Helen castor. It's episode 14 of season five and a link is in the show Notes to this episode. As Henry's taken away from his cupboard to safety, he sees the awful result of Richard's words. Rebels are ransacking the Tower. They go into Richard's mother's room and destroy her bed. Joan gets out of the Tower thanks to her own guards, but she's frightened half to death. Others are not so lucky. Archbishop Sudbury tries to take sanctuary in the Tower chapel. Rebels drag him out and take him prisoner. They also track down the treasurer, Robert Hales and John of Gaunt's personal doctor, William Appleton. By the middle of the afternoon, there's a grisly sight bobbing along cheapside. The heads of the Ministers, Sudbury, Hales and others have been hacked off and stuck on poles and are being waved in procession throughout the city. And this is only the start of the slaughter. From now on, anyone associated with the regime is a target. And more beheadings take place in London's streets. There are also hideous xenophobic attacks on groups the mob don't like. Flemings are particularly vulnerable. Their houses are raided and in one neighborhood, 35 Flemings are hauled from a church and murdered en masse in the street. Whatever the hell Richard thought he was doing at Mile End has completely backfired. He's given his permission for a massacre. What's left of his court takes refuge in Beinard's Castle. Rumors reach them that the rebels are talking about burning London to the ground. If there's going to be anything left of the city by the time the weekend is out, now's the moment for someone else to take control. The man who steps up is Mayor William Walworth. This hard as nails fishmonger has been by Richard's side almost since the revolt began. Now he formulates a new high risk strategy. Ostensibly, it's the same plan as before. The rebel leadership is told to bring all their men outside the city walls for another meeting with Richard. They're told they'll be given a formal commission to kill all lawyers and lower level royal officials. But this time Walworth isn't plotting to stall them or buy them off. He has something else in mind. On the morning of Saturday 15 June, the rebels go to Smithfield, an open space to the northwest of the city. The King goes to pray at the shrine of Edward the Confessor at Westminster Abbey. Then he rides with Walworth to meet his people. So far as we can tell, Richard is still in fairly relaxed mood and still seems to believe that he has the power to, by virtue simply of being King, to magically make all his problems go away. When he gets to Smithfield in the middle of the afternoon, he can see there's still a vast crowd of rebellious peasants and Londoners waiting to see him. Though many of them are probably hungover and weary after several long days of plunder, murder and sleeping outdoor. With Walworth at his side, Richard is introduced to the rebel leader, Wat Tyler. Tyler is now riding high and he presents a list of demands very different from those of Mile End. The rebels don't just want freedom and land reform, they want a complete abolition of all lordship and all church property ownership. Almost all laws are to be cancelled and everyone should be free and of one condition. Just as at Mile End, Richard agrees to anything Tyler wants. But unlike at Mile End, things aren't going to end there. Tyler is thirsty and he asks the King's servants for some water. When it comes, he rinses his mouth and spits on the ground. This is just the chance Mayor William Walworth has been waiting for. One of the royal attendants tells Tyler to mind his manners, and when Tyler claps back, Walworth says he's offended the King and goes to arrest him. Tyler resists and Walworth pulls a knife. There's a scuffle and in it, Walworth manages to stab Tyler several times, causing catastrophic bleeding. Tyler staggers away from the group and a few paces after which, as one chronicler recalls, he fell to the ground, half dead. The rebel leader has been sensationally downed right in front of Richard. And now Walworth reveals the second part of his plan. He's got troops from the city's militia on the ready for when the far bigger rebel army is caught off guard. Now that moment has come. The problem is the militia has to be summoned and the rebels waiting across Smithfield for the outcome of negotiations have just seen wat Tyler totter away from the King and fall to the ground. For those around Richard, time must seem to stand still. The chronicler records that the rebels on Smithfield suspect foul play. And though they're tired and confused, they aren't going to let that go. They began to bend their bows and shoot. He writes. This looks like it could be another disaster. But then, as total annihilation looms, Richard does something extraordinary. All his life he's been told that if people can just see him, their problems will melt away. So now he puts that to the test. With arrows flying into the sky all around him, Richard jumps on his horse and spurs it forward. Then, just as he wanted to do on the barge at the start of all this, he heads directly towards the rebels, calling out to them that he's their king and they need to follow him. Does this kid have a death wish? Or is his insatiable need for adoration for once going to come to England's rescue? Find out next time on this is History.
- [29:25]
William Walworth
We hope you enjoyed this episode, but we're not leaving medieval London just yet. If you can't get enough of the rebellion of 1381, I want you to direct that energy over to a discussion we've got going on our new Patreon. If you were a peasant in 1381, would you set London on fire to send a message to Richard? If you're already a this Is History Royal Favourite on Patreon. You get cracking. We're keen to hear what you think and if you're not yet a member, now's the perfect time to jump in. You can become a this Is History Royal Favourite member today to join the discussion plus get all the other great benefits of being a subscriber. Learn more@patreon.com thisishistory.