Peasants’ Revolt

Secret Societies & The First Stirrings of The Reformation

Key Takeaways:

1. The Pope betrayed the Knights Templar on what would become the very first Black Friday in 1307.

2. Despite the betrayal, the Knight Templar persisted as an underground secret society in the British Isles, similar to another secret society involved in the Peasants' Revolt of 1381.

3. Firebrand preachers became involved with the underground resistance that manifested in the Peasants' Revolt, a precursor to the Protestant Reformation.

The First Black Friday

In the Star Wars film Revenge of the Sith, Order 66 was a secret protocol that led to the sudden betrayal of the Jedi Knights. George Lucas' plot point was likely inspired by the very first “Black Friday”, which took place on Friday, October 13th, 1307.

After a thousand years of the Roman Catholic Church banning money lending at interest, the Knights Templar effectively revived usury during the Crusades by exchanging currencies with pilgrims en route to the Holy Land. The Knights used advantageous exchange rates, which worked just like interest on loans, to amass phenomenal wealth.

King Phillip IV of France borrowed huge sums from the Knights. But when he couldn’t repay the loans, he prevailed on his political ally, Pope Clement V, to destroy them. Phillip had played a key role in getting the Pope elected to his position, and so the Pontiff owed him a huge favor.

Clement repaid that favor by ordering the simultaneous arrest of the Knights Templar across Europe. Confessions of blasphemy and sodomy were extracted through torture. The Knights were convicted, and their assets seized. King Philip IV was saved from financial ruin, and Friday the 13th has been considered an unlucky date ever since.

But one European monarch hesitated to obey the Pope. Because the Knights Templar had been political allies of King Edward II of England, he dithered for three crucial months before finally obeying the Pope and seizing their assets. This hesitation gave the English Knights precious time to vanish underground.

Seven years later, in 1314, Edward marched north with the English army to confront Robert the Bruce in the First War of Scottish Independence. Unfortunately for Edward, his army suffered a catastrophic defeat at Bannockburn. The battle was a turning point in the war, and Edward himself narrowly escaped capture during the rout.

Some accounts of the Battle of Bannockburn mention an unexpected cavalry charge that helped turn the tide for the Scots. According to legend, this cavalry was none other than the former Knights Templar, still operating as an underground secret society almost a decade after the First Black Friday.

The Peasants Revolt

Less than 50 years after the Battle of Bannockburn, the Black Death struck Europe like a bomb detonation. That horrifying pandemic killed something like half the peasantry populating the English countryside. With so many formerly productive fields now lying fallow due to a lack of laborers, the surviving peasants realized they finally had the feudal lords, who owned those estates, over a barrel.

Instead of swearing fealty to any particular lord, as was customary at the time, the remaining peasantry began playing one lord off against another in bidding wars for their labor. The labor shortage destabilized the feudal economic system, as former peasants began demanding the freedom to sell their labor to the highest bidder as employees.

But the nobility was accustomed to making demands, not listening to them. And so, in 1351, the English parliament passed The Statute of Labourers, which fixed the price of labor by law. It was the same strategy attempted a thousand years before in 301 AD by the Roman Emperor Diocelation, with his Edict on Maximum Prices.

This attempt to enforce the dying feudal system by law ripped English society apart. In the summer of 1381, a hundred thousand enraged peasants marched on London, led by a mysterious figure known as Wat Tyler. Barbara Tuchman, in her classic history of the 14th century, A Distant Mirror, wrote that this rebellion spread "with some evidence of planning."

In his capacity as a historian, Winston Churchill wrote in The Birth of Britain, “Throughout the summer of 1381, there was a general ferment. Beneath it all lay organization. Agents moved round the villages of central England, in touch with a 'Great Society' which was said to meet in London.”

Because secret societies intentionally conceal their activities, their histories are nearly impossible to unravel. There’s no historical evidence linking the whispers of surviving Knights Templar in the British Isles to rumors of an underground “Great Society” fomenting the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. But the significant role played by secret societies in the English transition from feudalism to capitalism is beyond dispute.

The Protestant Reformation

On June 13th, 1381, as the rebels stormed London, they were joined by local townsfolk. The mob killed anyone associated with the royal government and set fire to many buildings. The next day, with fires still smoldering throughout town, a 14-year-old King Richard II met with the rebels and agreed to virtually all their demands, including an end to the practice of serfdom. A miniature from a 1470s copy of Jean Froissart's Chronicles illustrates this meeting and serves as the Title Card to this essay.

On June 15th, Richard rode out to Smithfield to meet with Wat Tyler. Violence erupted there, and Richard’s retinue horribly injured Tyler. After that, the young king managed to restore order, put down the Peasants’ Revolt, and hang the already grievously injured Tyler.

In addition to Wat Tyler, the other central figure on the side of the rebels was a firebrand preacher named John Ball. Ball held deep-seated beliefs about social and economic equality, which he articulated through religious rhetoric. He railed against the feudal system and against the vast wealth of the Church, both of which would go on to be major complaints in the Protestant Reformation a century-and-a-half later.

John Ball is frequently associated with his contemporary John Wycleff, another firebrand preacher. Wycleff also believed in economic equality, so much so that he agitated for a propertyless society to replace the feudal system. Wycleff also believed in translating the Bible into common languages, something that the Church vehemently opposed at the time. Along with the unequal feudal system and the ostentatious wealth of the Church, the translation of the Bible would become another contentious issue in the upcoming Protestant Reformation.

Conclusion

After the killing of Wat Tyler, the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 ultimately failed. King Richard II went back on his promise to abolish the feudal system, but he didn’t save it. Instead, the revolt proved to be a precursor to the Protestant Reformation, which would consume Europe 150 years later. In addition to illustrating the intimate connection between the histories of faith and finance, the Peasants’ Revolt also highlights the significance of secret societies in the transition from medieval feudalism to modern capitalism.

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Further Materials

Throughout the summer of 1381 there was a general ferment. Beneath it all lay organisation. Agents moved round the villages of Central England, in touch with a “Great Society” which was said to meet in London. In May violence broke out in Essex. It was started by an attempt to make a second and more stringent collection of the poll-tax which had been levied in the previous year. The turbulent elements in London took fire, and a band under one Thomas Faringdon marched off to join the rebels. Walworth, the mayor, faced a strong municipal opposition which was in sympathy and contact with the rising. In Kent, after an attack on Lesnes Abbey, the peasants marched through Rochester and Maidstone, burning manorial and taxation records on their way. At Maidstone they released the agitator John Ball from the episcopal prison, and were joined by a military adventurer with gifts and experience of leadership, Wat Tyler.
Winston Churchill, The Birth Of Britain, 1956, page 301