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

    • He weeps by the side of the ocean, He weeps on the top of the hill; He purchases pancakes and lotion, And chocolate… ,
    • 'Half-way through The Conquest of Water I felt as if I had been subjected to the literary equivalent of excessive c… ,
    • 'Volume five, then, but still no end in sight. Sandbrook is clearly enjoying himself so much he can’t bear the seri… ,
    • 'By the end of the book something so weighty, stylish and impressive has been built up that one feels far nearer to… ,
    • 'Her ensuing psychotic episode is described so convincingly ... that the reader will wonder if Dobrakovová did not… ,
    • 'The perspectives complement and contest one another, amounting to a glorious, atmospheric set of ventriloquisms.'… ,
    • RT : I reviewed The Testaments for . I will not be taking any questions at this time. ,
    Follow Us