OTD in 1381 - The Tower of London fell to the rebels. This was the high point of the Peasants’ Revolt, with its participants having burned John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster’s opulent Savoy Palace to the ground on the previous day. On 14 June the rebels led by Wat Tyler met with the young King #RichardII at Mile End. He acquiesced to their demands. However, while Richard & his men were away another group of rebels led by Joanna Ferrour & her husband surged into the Tower & executed Archbishop Sudbury & the Treasurer Robert Hales. Their other target, the King’s uncle John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, was far away in Northumberland negotiating with the Scots, otherwise he too would likely have been eliminated. We’ll likely never know why the rebels gained entry to the Tower so easily with the remaining royal forces putting up no resistance. It could be as simple as the common soldiers feeling sympathy for the rebels. Alternatively, the rebels could have told those in command at the Tower that the King had agreed to hand the fortress over to his ‘True Commons’ or more chillingly perhaps he actually had as an attempt to buy time. Also at the Tower that day was Gaunt’s heir & Richard’s future rival, Henry of Bolingbroke, Earl of Derby (later #HenryIV.) Both Richard & Henry were aged fourteen in 1381, which is significant. Fourteen was the youngest age at which a Medieval English male could be said to have reached his majority & considered an adult combatant. Hence we see King Richard making his own first autonomous political decisions in response to the revolt. Likewise Henry was fortunate to escape from the Tower with his life (reportedly he only did so through the goodwill of the Ferrours) as the rebels would have viewed him as an adult could be legitimately made to pay the price for their grievances against his father.

I lost my best friend today. My husband died this morning.