Helen Castor

The First Poll Tax Riots

England, Arise: The People, the King and the Great Revolt of 1381

By

Little, Brown 506pp £25 order from our bookshop

In the summer of 1381 the University of Cambridge found itself in a deep and frightening crisis. Simmering tensions between town and gown had taken a violent turn, and on 15 and 16 June protesters stormed the houses of the university’s masters and officials, ransacking their coffers for the parchment and papers on which were recorded the grants of the university’s rights. In the midsummer sun, this invaluable archive was heaped up in the market square and set alight. When the flames died down, a woman named Margery Starre scattered fistfuls of ash into the air, crying, ‘Away with the learning of clerks! Away with it!’

Sign Up to our newsletter

Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.

Follow Literary Review on Twitter

  • Last Tweets

    • 'The lack of evidence ... of any definitive brain pathology in cases of schizophrenia and the absence of any reliab… ,
    • 'Since Dylan’s commercial and ideological heyday, the intrusion of sociology, semiology and post-structuralist thou… ,
    • 'One of the reasons for its longevity is that it has virtually nothing to say about science and technology at all,… ,
    • 'The characters in many of these stories are trapped in the obsessive present tense of their own thoughts; in the m… ,
    • 'Libraries, for much of their existence, have embodied in microcosm many of the characteristics of the totalitarian… ,
    • 'Moss and Cynthia buy several properties through which to launder their ill-gotten gains, take lots of drugs, have… ,
    • 'Never mind the imperial cult. This is the cult of Boris. What happened to Rome?' From the LR archive:… ,
    Follow Us