The Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 was a singular event in English history, not merely a food riot, but an organised outbreak of pure class warfare which, leaving aside John Ball’s rabble-rousing, Biblical egalitarianism, was untrammelled by constitutional quarrels or religious disputes. It was fomented by vicious class legislation — the Statute of Labourers of 1351 and three poll taxes levied between 1377 and 1380 — which was intended to prevent the common people from benefiting from increased wages as a result of the Black Death’s depletion of the labour supply. The government presented the poll taxes as a fair way of supplying the revenue needed to sustain a faltering and unpopular war against France. But the game was given away by sumptuary laws designed to keep the people in their place. Those laws forbade the lower orders to eat anything but basic foodstuffs or to clothe themselves above their station: the points added to shoes, for instance, could be up to 24” for noblemen, 12” for gentlemen and 6.5”
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