Hello, friend, and welcome, welcome to the Renaissance English History podcast, a part of the Agora

Podcasting Network, and the original Tudor History podcast telling stories about Tudor England since 2009.

I'm your host, Heather, and I'm a storyteller who makes history accessible because I believe it's a pathway to understanding who we are, our place in the universe, and being much more

deeply in touch with our own humanity.

So today we are talking about the fall of serfdom in England, which was a very, very long

process.

It didn't happen overnight.

But the official nail in the coffin,

as it were, came during the reign of Elizabeth, who formally ended serfdom in England.

So, you know, that's something random. A lot of people don't realize that even during the reign of

Henry VIII and Edward and Mary, that

serfdom was still officially legal in England. So Elizabeth finally ended it, and we are going to

talk about the whole kind of process of serfdom. So we're going to go, you know, we're going to

start like two, three hundred years before and work our way up. So we're going to go, you know, we're going to start like two, 300 years before

and work our way up. So that is what we are doing today. Quick reminder, TudorCon

online ticket are available now. You can go to Englandcast.com slash TudorCon online.

I am super duper excited about it. I'm adding some more speakers who are doing

streaming only talks. So that is fun. Just really excited to get that going. So

Englandcast.com slash TudorCon online to grab your spot. All right, my friend. So, let's get started with a quote by Watt Tyler,

who led the Peasants Revolt of 1381. He said there should be equality among all people save only

the king. There should be no serfdom and all men should be free and of one condition. We will be free

forever, our heirs and our lambs. And his quote encapsulates the spirit of a time when the foundations

...