On This Day
1381 – In England, the Peasants’ Revolt, led by Wat Tyler, comes to a head, as rebels set fire to the Savoy Palace.[3]
The Peasants’ Revolt, also named Wat Tyler’s Rebellion or the Great Rising, was a major uprising across large parts of England in 1381. The revolt had various causes, including the socio-economic and political tensions generated by the Black Death pandemic in the 1340s, the high taxes resulting from the conflict with France during the Hundred Years’ War, and instability within the local leadership of London. The final trigger for the revolt was the intervention of a royal official, John Bampton, in Essex on 30 May 1381. His attempts to collect unpaid poll taxes in Brentwood ended in a violent confrontation, which rapidly spread across the south-east of the country. A wide spectrum of rural society, including many local artisans and village officials, rose up in protest, burning court records and opening the local gaols. The rebels sought a reduction in taxation, an end to the system of unfree labour known as serfdom, and the removal of King Richard II’s senior officials and law courts.
Inspired by the sermons of the radical cleric John Ball and led by Wat Tyler, a contingent of Kentish rebels advanced on London. They were met at Blackheath by representatives of the royal government, who unsuccessfully attempted to persuade them to return home. King Richard, then aged 14, retreated to the safety of the Tower of London, but most of the royal forces were abroad or in northern England. On 13 June, the rebels entered London and, joined by many local townsfolk, attacked the gaols, destroyed the Savoy Palace, set fire to law books and buildings in the Temple, and killed anyone associated with the royal government. The following day, Richard met the rebels at Mile End and acceded to most of their demands, including the abolition of serfdom. Meanwhile, rebels entered the Tower of London, killing Simon Sudbury, Lord Chancellor, and Robert Hales, Lord High Treasurer, whom they found inside.
On 15 June, Richard left the city to meet Tyler and the rebels at Smithfield. Violence broke out, and Richard’s party killed Tyler. Richard defused the tense situation long enough for London’s mayor, William Walworth, to gather a militia from the city and disperse the rebel forces. Richard immediately began to re-establish order in London and rescinded his previous grants to the rebels. The revolt had also spread into East Anglia, where the University of Cambridge was attacked and many royal officials were killed. Unrest continued until the intervention of Henry Despenser, who defeated a rebel army at the Battle of North Walsham on 25 or 26 June. Troubles extended north to York, Beverley and Scarborough, and as far west as Bridgwater in Somerset. Richard mobilised 4,000 soldiers to restore order. Most of the rebel leaders were tracked down and executed; by November, at least 1,500 rebels had been killed.
The Peasants’ Revolt has been widely studied by academics. Late 19th-century historians used a range of sources from contemporary chroniclers to assemble an account of the uprising, and these were supplemented in the 20th century by research using court records and local archives. Interpretations of the revolt have shifted over the years. It was once seen as a defining moment in English history, but modern academics are less certain of its impact on subsequent social and economic history. The revolt heavily influenced the course of the Hundred Years’ War, by deterring later Parliaments from raising additional taxes to pay for military campaigns in France. The revolt has been widely used in socialist literature, including by the author William Morris, and remains a potent political symbol for the political left, informing the arguments surrounding the introduction of the Community Charge in the United Kingdom during the 1980s.
Born On This Day
1863 – Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon, English fashion designer (d. 1935)
Lucy Christiana, Lady Duff-Gordon (née Sutherland; 13 June 1863 – 20 April 1935) was a leading British fashion designer in the late 19th and early 20th centuries who worked under the professional name Lucile.
The first British-based designer to achieve international acclaim, Lucy Duff-Gordon was a widely acknowledged innovator in couture styles as well as in fashion industry public relations. In addition to originating the “mannequin parade”, a precursor to the modern fashion show, and training the first professional models, she launched slit skirts and low necklines, popularized less restrictive corsets, and promoted alluring and pared-down lingerie.[1]
Opening branches of her London house, Lucile Ltd, in Chicago, New York City, and Paris, her business became the first global couture brand, dressing a trend-setting clientele of royalty, nobility, and stage and film personalities.[2] Duff-Gordon is also remembered as a survivor of the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912, and as the losing party in the precedent-setting 1917 contract law case of Wood v. Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon, in which Judge Benjamin N. Cardozo wrote the opinion for New York’s highest court, the New York Court of Appeals, upholding a contract between Duff-Gordon and her advertising agent that assigned the agent the sole right to market her name.[3] It was the first case of its kind, clothes labelled and sold at a lowered cost in a cheaper market under an expensive “brand name”.
FYI
Just aCar Guy: By the way, I’d like to start a thank you campaign.
Just A Car Guy: After Connecticut lawmakers approved a plan to tax truckers for each mile traveled in the state, Governor Ned Lamont took to social media to let truck drivers know that he believes that his state will be better off without them.
The House of Representatives passed the truck mileage tax and voted to exempt the heaviest trucks on the road – dairy trucks – from paying the tax.
Those trucks operate at 100,000 pounds, while the limit for all other trucks is 80,000 pounds. This just goes to show that the truck mileage tax is not actually about damage to the roads, it’s just about money.
Lighter-weight trucks will be subsidizing heavier trucks that will be exempt from the tax.
Vector’s World: Hainan China housing structures
Considered a “Fixer”, more of “Tearer Downer.”
Zillow: $695,0007 bd5 ba7,086 sqft 6555 W Dimond Blvd, Anchorage, AK 99502
Brain Pickings by Maria Popova: The ocean and the meaning of life, James Baldwin on love, the illusion of choice and the paradox of freedom, Borges and the blues of knowing ourselves
The Old Motor: Four Fun Friday Kodachrome Car Photographs No. 306
Trouble staying in his lane?
Ideas
By maillethandmade: PEACOCK Crystal Brooch
By Sean Miller: Reverse Engineered Bumper Sensor Campsite Security Alarm
By FredTSL: Cheap Expandable Floor Piano
Recipes
By In The Kitchen With Matt: Easy Sweet Potato Fries
RecipeTinEats
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- Antipasto Chickpea Salad May 31, 2023I love this chickpea salad because it involves little more than opening jars, it keeps well for days and the chickpeas keep me full for longer. It’s like an antipasto platter, in the form of a protein-laden, good-for-you meal! Antipasto Chickpea Salad Professional food writers would probably describe chickpeas as a blank canvas for flavour.... […]Nagi
wikimedia
- Wikimedia Commons picture of the day for June 3 June 3, 2023Picture of the day Amphycribral vascular bundle of a Fern Rhizome Pteridium aquilinum. Big cells with red cell wall are tracheids. They serve in the transport of water. Around the xylem there are xylem parenchyma and phloem cells. A single row layer of small cells (with red content) located circumferentially is endoderm. In the parenchyma […]
- Wikimedia Commons picture of the day for June 2 June 2, 2023Picture of the day Ascent to the steeple of the St. Viktor Church, Dülmen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
AV Club Wiki Wormhole
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- Anna Cathcart talks XO, Kitty and raps Ludacris' verse from "Baby" June 2, 2023Read more...Peter Scobel
- Barbie used up the world's supply of pink paint June 2, 2023One of the things that’s immediately eye-catching about Greta Gerwig’s upcoming Barbie—the Little Women director’s attempt to say something cinematically satirical and funny about the inner life of the iconic doll—is that so much of what Gerwig and her team have created for the film’s world has been done with…Read more...William Hughes
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