The wages may have been a very big cause of the Peasants’ Revolt because the Black Death killed many labourers so the survivors asked for higher wages. Unfortunately, the Statute of Labourers (the new law) tried to stop this from happening. It also stated that people were to be branded if they were spotted travelling in the country looking for higher wages. Seeing that the peasants were poor, many of them may have attempted to get higher wages by travelling around the country and would have died. Many peasants were made very angry because of this.
The peasants then started questioning the priests. Their priests had told them it was God’s intention that some people were very rich and others had to live a life of hard work and poverty. But other priests like John Ball were saying this view was wrong and that the peasants deserved more rewards in life. Soon after, the Archbishop of Canterbury had John Ball put in prison because he thought it was dangerous to let John Ball say such things. The peasants must have been quite angry because of this because they may have thought that John Ball may have been their only chance of a good life with rewards.
Soon after the Statute of Labourers was made, Richard II (the king of that time) needed to pay money because of the war with France so introduced a poll tax which everyone had to pay. This was extremely unfair for the peasants because they were poor so did not have enough money to pay the tax. However, they had to because the poll tax demand stated that men resisting to pay the tax were to be thrown in prison. Peasants may have started getting angry because they may have thought they should get a less amount of money to pay because they didn’t have enough money to pay for the tax.
I think all of the causations of the Peasants’ Revolt are linked because they all have to do with money and the peasants were not rich. The peasants mainly rebelled because they either wanted higher wages or they wanted more rewards in life such as money. They may have felt it was unfair that they had to live horrible lives and other people had wonderful lives full of money.
I also think the wages and the Statute of Labourers are linked because the wages triggered the Statute of Labourers when the peasants went travelling round the country looking for higher wages.
Therefore, I think the poll tax is the most important cause of the Peasants’ Revolt because after the John Ball said the peasants deserved higher wages, many peasants may have started agreeing with him and started protesting that they needed higher wages but then came along the poll tax. The peasants may have gotten quite angry with the poll tax because many of them wouldn’t have been able to pay the tax and if they had a wife they would have had to pay for her too. Some of them would have thought the poll tax was very unfair because the rich people would easily be able to pay the tax and the peasants wouldn’t be able to pay the tax that easily.
I don’t think the Black Death was the most important cause of the Peasants’ Revolt because even though the Black Death really changed England, I don’t think it really made the peasants that angry. I think the Black Death was a cause of the Peasants’ Revolt, but not the most important.
