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Hello, when Adam Delved at Evespan, who was then the gentleman?

The opening words of a sermon said to be by John Ball, which fired a broadside at the hierarchical nature of 14th century England.

Ball along with what Tyler was one of the principal leaders of the peasants revolt. His sermon ends.

I exhorted to consider that now the time has come appointed to us by God, in which you may, if you will, cast off the yoke of bondage and recover liberty.

The subsequent events of June 1381 represent a pivotal and thrilling moment in England's history characterized by murder and mayhem, beheadings and betrayal, a boyking and his absent uncle and a general riot of destruction and death.

By some interpretations, the cause of this sensational event threatened to undermine the fabric of government, as an awareness of deep injustice was awakened in the general populace.

But who were the rebels? And how closely did they really come to upending the status quo? And just how true are the claims that the peasants revolt laid the foundations of the longstanding English tradition of radical egalitarianism?

Joining me to discuss what's been termed as the greatest masterbell in English history, a Caroline Barron, Professor of Research Fellow at Royal Holloway University of London.

Alistair Dunn, Teacher of History at Oakham School, and Mary Rubin, Professor of Early Modern History at Queen Mary University of London.

Mary Rubin, England, there was a wide range of economic and social difficulties towards the end of the 14th century. Can you just briskly block that in for us?

Sure. Well, to understand 1381, we must go back about a generation, and this is the world in England and in Europe, of course, after the Black Death.

Back Death, 1348, 1349, which occurred in the 60s and in the 70s.

Now, this is just such a dramatic restructuring of relations between man, land, authority.

People became scarce. In some places up to half the population perished. People became scarce. Labor became dear.

Land was there in plenty because so many people working on the land had simply died.

Now, the immediate aftermath of the Black Death, we're talking the late 40s, early 50s, meant confusion and disruption.

Prices of food were very dear. People were moving about and it was not clear how the economy will restructure itself and society and authority too.

But patterns soon emerged and the patterns were that with all the empty land and with fewer people around, some sort of new order will have to emerge.

And in most, in England, we're particularly well informed because England has such fantastic sources, but this is true for the whole of Europe.

What was clear was that those who owned the land, those who owned the vast, vast agrarian estates with hundreds and thousands of surfs upon them had to find a new order.

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