Events

Battlefields Trust Online Talk: The People of 1381

Monday 4th November 2024

This talk will illuminate the military backgrounds and connections of participants in the so-called Peasants revolt of 1381 drawing on The People of 1381 (www.1381.online) an innovative new research project set to produce the most comprehensive interpretation of the Peasants' Revolt to date. The revolt was one of the largest popular uprisings in medieval Europe and rocked the country in the summer of 1381. 'The People of 1381' sheds new light on the complex economic, social and political dynamics of the rebellion.

Central to the project is the creation of a database to provide the first overview of events, places and people involved. Judicial and manorial documents are combined with records of central and local government, poll tax records and more, to reconstruct collective biographies of the people caught up in the rising. The project is a 'history from below', using an unparalleled set of medieval records to investigate the participation of social groups whose role has been little investigated. This presentation will look at some case studies of the people of 1381, exploring their lives and showing how we can recapture the voice and concerns of these forgotten protestors. We will also discuss our recent collaboration with the Battlefield Trust on the recently installed information board at the Battle of North Walsham 1381.

Adrian is Chair in the History of Finance and Association Pro-Vice Chancellor Research, Prosperity and Resilience at the University of Reading.

Adrian is currently developing the impacts emerging from the major AHRC funded project ‘The People of 1381’ (2019-2023), an innovative research project which has produced the most comprehensive interpretation of the Peasants' Revolt to date. To follow its progress visit 1381.online.

He is interested in the History of Finance and recently completed a major project funded by the Leverhulme Trust with Professor Chris Brooks and Dr Helen Killick. The project “The first real estate bubble: Land Prices and Rents in Medieval England c. 1200-1550” ran for three years from 2015. The project builds upon a previous project for Leverhume with Professor Chris Brooks and Dr Tony Moore on medieval foreign exchange. A major project for the ESRC with the same team investigated the early and innovative use of credit finance by a succession of English medieval monarchs (10.5255/UKDA-SN-6880-1) and an earlier ESRC project investigated advance contracts for the supply of wool (10.5255/UKDA-SN-5325-1).

Professor Bell also specialises in the Hundred Years War and his book, War and the Soldier in the Fourteenth Century, was published by Boydell and Brewer in Autumn 2004. In 2006 he was awarded a major grant from the AHRC (jointly with Professor Anne Curry, University of Southampton) to investigate “The Soldier in Later Medieval England” for more details see medievalsoldier.org. The findings are outlined in a major work The Soldier in Later Medieval England, published by Oxford University Press (2013).