| June 13 |  |
Editor says, what if the Peasants Revolt on steroids? muses Robbie Taylor. Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). This story was published in the May 2012 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 1381, angered at being denied a meeting with King Richard II, Wat Tyler (pictured) and his army of peasants took London, burning it to the ground.
Peasants Revolt, RebootRichard was seized as he attempted to flee the city, and was killed by the peasants when he told them that he would never negotiate with rabble such as them. Wat Tyler sent Richard's head to the surviving members of the nobility and told them that a similar fate awaited them if they did not bow to the demands of the peasant army.
Since these demands included a drastic reduction in the power of the nobility, they refused and prepared to fight. Tyler's army was growing invincible, though - like Spartacus before him, he drew support from the oppressed throughout the kingdom. The nobles who could still raise an army gathered one to meet him at Nottingham and sent him challenge. With almost a thousand knights and 5000 men-at-arms, they thought they would easily wipe out the peasantry; then they saw Tyler and his forces, nearly a hundred thousand strong, surround and crush them. Every noble who had dared to resist the peasantry was put to death, along with any male heirs. Tyler and his peasant council then ruled England as a democracy in the old Greek style. In spite of French, Scottish and Spanish efforts to place nobility back into power in England, the new Peasant's Kingdom resisted any who tried to take their freedom. Recommendation: visit Robbie Taylor's Amazon Author Page.
Entry posted by Alternate Historian Robbie Taylor
© Robbie Taylor, 2004-Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: King Richard II, Wat Tyler, Peasants Revolt, Socialism, Britain.
~ Interesting perspective on the Peasants Revolt, although its generally considered unlikely that England could have survived as a Republic.
~ This throws the War of the Roses and English history into free fall.
Would in this Alternate Time Line medieval historiand write a history of a hypothetical civil war between the houses of Edward II's children that goes on for years?
Under John of Gaunt as their general the quarrelling sons of edward unite to avenge their nephew and defence their priviledges.
Gaunt's son will not be exiled abroad.
An older brother of Gaunt becomes king.
The problem with the peasants is they are not professional soldiers and the difficulty of keeping a large army supplied.
The rival claimants in the W of the R did marshal surprisingly large armies.
Will there be a Golden Age in England under Edward IV and the Plantagenets?
~ Richard, armies of professional soldiers in history were rarely as good as their reputation - and it's hard to win against odds of 20 to 1. For those who think that a democracy would have failed in the Middle Ages, I just have to say that I think when people take charge of their own destiny, there's no stopping them.
I like the alternate history idea - didn't Phillip K. Dick do something like that with Man in the High Castle?
~ No, "The Man in the High Castle" was about an alt-post WWII where America lost to the Axis.
~ The professional soldiers of the middle ages were quite good. The nobility of the middle ages were miliarised -hence them being the ruling elite.
The Plantagenets can use their possessions in France as a base to reinvade lost territory. The 100 Years War is called of as the French nobility fear the pwer of the peasants .
The problemis the supply of large armies in the medieval period and as soon as the 100,000 peasants go home the professiona men at arms and knights have the advantage.
~ John, I think he had an alternate-alternate history inside the story that was about the allies winning the war, but it was different from our timeline. Been too long, I'll have to read it again.
Richard, Agincourt proved that peasant fighting ability was plenty good enough to take down the nobles...
~ "Like Spartacus and his army"? You do know what happened to Spartacus, don't you?
~ The peasants might have had disaffected knights and nobles on their side; there were always the European equivalent of "ronin" around. And if they got their hands on money, they could use it to hire pros of their own.
~ The question is, how long could it last? It'd be prime territory for a new dictator arising in the next few generations with grand promises or even out of sheer charisma ala Alcibiades.
~ I agree but I am only commenting Richard II had a big family as they say, of warlike relatives who in OTL were responsible for bumpimg him off and fighting over the throne.
Also as someone has just said it would likely lead to a new dictatorship would it lead to some new theocracy?
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