What caused the Peasants' Revolt? Part 2: Poll Taxes | 2 Minute History

[Music] in the summer of 1381 Essex and Kent erupted in rebellion contemporary chroniclers recalled how crowds assembled and began to clamor for Liberty planning to become the equals of their Lords these local revolts soon spread culminating in the biggest popular uprising England had seen but what made the people so angry the tensions between the Commons and the nobility had been increasing for some time but it was the poll taxes of 1377 to 1381 which was a catalyst for this uprising raised to fund the Kings Foreign Wars the money failed to deliver military success in 1377 a fleet of French ships attacks of burnt towns along the south coast and popular resentment grew even with this money the King was unable to protect his subjects from foreign raids the first poll tax was levied at a flat rate of one group per person regardless of an individual's wealth this equated to about two days work for the average labourer the second granted in 1379 had a sliding scale but the poor still had to make a contribution however it was the third poll tax granted in 1381 which caused the most problems this was once again at a flat rate but at a much higher rate of three gross per person 'ok waiting to about two weeks of work for a labourer not only were these taxes unfair but people resented that they had failed to produce a successful military campaign tax evasion became endemic official records show that between the first poll tax in 1377 and the third poll tax in 1381 as many as 450,000 taxpayers disappeared from the records when this tax didn't raise as much money as king richard ii expected he dispatched representatives to find out what was going on and to collect the outstanding sums this was when