Melvyn Bragg gave a
highly informed and entertaining talk at Edinburgh book festival 2016, when he occasionally digressed from his
historical tale of intrigue, romance, betrayal, injustice and ignorance. Bragg
has written a timely book and we might draw parallels to today.
He spoke of the
background to the story and of how much control religion had in those days (I
wondered is this the control that Murdoch’s media outlets and others have
today) and that people were scared to disobey the church. Since 1066 French was
spoken, but English came back and the Bible was translated into English – there
were writers such as Chaucer and his Canterbury Tales written in Latin, French
and English. God spoke Latin apparently and the Bible was not to be touched.
The Great
Plague of London killed 47.3% in one year and they thought the plague was a
punishment from God. The Black Death of the 1340s reduced numbers for labour –
wages were fixed and there was feudalism.
Bragg told
the story of the Peasants Revolt in England in 1348. This was not a ‘peasant’
rebellion at all He said and it has been air brushed out and totally ignored
mostly. This was the biggest mass rebellion ever in England and it is never
talked about. There was a three to four months build up and the rebellion
lasted over two weeks in London.
The Hundred
Years war in France was not going well for the English and the taxes needed for
the war were far too high. The people
could not afford to pay the high taxes and refused to pay. This spread to Essex
and to Kent.
The Preacher John Ball;
The Queen Joan, Princess of Wales, known as the Virgin of Kent was most beautiful. She had five children and became rich from
the Crusades. Later she married the renowned warrior the Black Prince.
Wat Tyler - The people voted for him to
lead the rebellion. He had fought in France and was a skilled artisan;
The Young King Richard; People
believed the king was sacred and spoke with God.
The rebels
took the enormous Rochester castle, Canterbury, Suffolk and then London. The
young king met them at Greenwich and promised to give them freedom to fish and
to reduce the taxes.
Born changed
the game though - he said that the state must be changed and give away its wealth.
The Queen sent a ring worn by the Black Prince to King Richard to spur him to
take back control. Richard was no warrior and he liked music. (power does not
like to give up power). Tyler trusted the King and rode to discuss with him –
and they assassinated him.
“Book festivals
are anti-dumbing down”and where "audiences go to be informed and widen
their knowledge.”
