The serfs, labourers, "rustics' letariat', This support'.
He looked that i ne whether the ample massacre lords.
revolt was not strictly confined to the peasants or the who were virtual slaves on the land. What evidence there is suggests that the most active were the richer peasants, and even some small landowners.
lhe leaders of the revoll certainly came from outside the Particularly promiwere could be described as the 'clerical prosuch as John Ball, who objected to the corruption of the Church.
group, recent witter on tic revol conners was the 'medieval equivalent of a radical intelligentsia, , bringing to the movement an ideological Ball's politics went beyond those outlined in the first set of demands presented to the King.
to the time when 'everything be in 'we may all be equal and loras be no gicale. masters than we be It was Bal who during the course of the revolt quoted the amous des, 'When Adam delved and Eve pho was then a gentleman?' egalitarian of Ball were probably shared by other leaders of the revolt, but such political consciousness extended to the majority of those who took part in sert the unrising is ditticult to sav It is true that the events of 'Jun days without their blemishes. For exLondoners who took Flemish settlers, whom they regarded as com petitors in the labour market.
the Overall, however, the participants in the revolt confined their targets to the ruling class, its property and the symbols of its rule. There was widespread burning of manorial court rules which recorded the obligations of the peasants towards their These included not just rent over, the allalysis • of 'experts writing a few years later bears a stark resemblance to presenttrenomen "lazy' British workers who 'exget something nothing'.