Graduation Year
2023
Document Type
Thesis
Degree
M.A.
Degree Name
Master of Arts (M.A.)
Degree Granting Department
History
Major Professor
Matthew King, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Jennifer Knight, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Matthew Knight, Ph.D.
Keywords
England, History of Universities, Legal History, Peasants' Revolt, Violence
Abstract
This paper focuses on the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 as it occurred in the university town of Cambridge. The historiographic understanding of the Cambridge wing of the Peasants’ Revolt has categorized it as foundationally motivated by town and gown resentment. Using legal records and chronicle accounts, this thesis demonstrates that the crowd did not exclusively target the university. As one of the town’s wealthier and increasingly authoritative institutions, the university and its constituents were targets in the uprising—but this was in addition to several attacks on local churches, monastic institutions, and manors. These attacks against higher authorities reflect a loss of faith in authorities amid the uncertainties of the fourteenth century. Some landowners used this context of uncertainty to their advantage, seeking to further upset the tenuous balance of authority in Cambridge by leading targeted attacks. The organizers of the revolt were moderately wealthy opportunists rather than peasants, though they rallied a crowd of the peasantry against wealthy and powerful institutions across Cambridge. The uprising was less a collective address of a grievance against the university and more a legal gamble by those who hoped to garner social and political authority amid instability, using quasi-legal methods in the hopes of legitimizing their attacks and enacting lasting justice in their favor.
Scholar Commons Citation
Vernon, Reagan T., "Against God, Good Faith, and Reason: The 1381 Peasants’ Revolt in Cambridge" (2023). USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/10458
