The Peasants’ Revolt and the Tower of London

In June 1381, the Tower of London was taken, not by an army of professional soldiers but by a force of rebels. The Great Rising, or 'Peasants’ Revolt' as it later became known, was sparked by a new poll tax - the third in four years - that took no account of individual wealth. Despite the name, the rebels came from a variety of social backgrounds, from serfs (unfree peasants) to members of the lower gentry.

Impregnable medieval fortress?

At the Tower of London, William the Conqueror’s White Tower and the huge curtain walls of Henry III and Edward I cast a shadow of impregnable royal strength over the medieval city.

In reality, the Tower’s fortunes as a defensive castle were somewhat mixed and depended heavily upon the loyalty and efficiency of its garrison.

The rebels attack London

On the morning of 13 June Richard II went to meet the rebels at Greenwich but when he saw their numbers the king retreated to the Tower. Young Richard begged the rebels to return home from the walls of the Tower, but they refused.

The rebels, angry at Richard’s refusal to meet with them, entered the city of London later the same day, burning and plundering buildings across the capital, including the magnificent Savoy Palace, owned by the king’s unpopular uncle, John of Gaunt. One can only imagine how terrifying it was for the young Richard to look out from the Tower and see his capital in flames.

The storming of the Tower

The next day, on 14 June, Richard II left the Tower to meet with the rebels at Mile End but while he was away around 400 rebels stormed the fortress. The gates were apparently open and they met no resistance, with the guards either afraid or sympathetic to the rebels’ cause (or likely a combination of both).

The rebels separated into gangs and ran searching through the towers and inner and outer wards, hunting for key targets. In the process they discovered Richard II’s mother, Joan of Kent, and his half-sister, Joan Holland. The chronicler Jean Froissart records that the rebels "arrogantly lay and sat and joked on the king’s bed, whilst several asked the king’s mother … to kiss them”. Both women remained unharmed although presumably severely shaken.

Simon Sudbury, King's Chancellor

The rebels’ principal target was Simon Sudbury, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Richard II’s Chancellor, one of the chief ministers of state. Sudbury was loathed by the rebels and blamed for much of the government’s unpopular policies including the poll tax.

Found praying in the chapel (by tradition the Chapel of St John in the White Tower), Sudbury was dragged out of the castle and onto Tower Hill, where he was executed by eight strokes to the neck on a block of wood. Although executions had taken place outside the Tower walls before, this is the first time that Tower Hill is recorded as being used specifically for this purpose, setting the precedent for its future use as a site of public killings.

Joanna Ferrour

One of the ‘chief leaders’ of the assault on the Tower was Joanna Ferrour of Rochester in Kent. In investigations held after the rebellion Joanna was said to have ‘thrust violent hands’ on both Sudbury and the king’s Treasurer, Robert Hales, dragged them out of the Tower of London and ordered that they be beheaded.

Richard II quells the rebellion

A day later, on 15 June, the King agreed to meet the rebels at Smithfield. The tense situation quickly degenerated and Wat Tyler was killed in the confusion. The teenage Richard II rode forward and shouted, 'You shall have no captain but me!' The rebels believed their demands would be met by their new champion and dispersed.

Richard’s ingenuity and bravery had triumphed where the Tower had failed to intimidate his subjects and protect his household. Richard had shown extraordinary courage for one so young and the future looked promising. It would be a different story 18 years later, when he returned to the Tower as its prisoner, before losing his crown to the future Henry IV.