In July 2021, members of the 'People of 1381' team visited the Essex Record Office in Chelmsford. They saw some of the treasures preserved in the Record Office and Herbert Eiden showed some of the manorial records the team is using to research the background of the rebels. The visit was filmed by Enrique Saunders of the University of Re

The People of 1381 project is featured in a new podcast in Dan Snow's History Hit series. Adrian Bell and Helen Lacey from the project take Dan through the revolt and the demands of the rebels and dexcribe some of the new discoveries made by the project. Links to listen to the podcast are at: https://podfollow.com/dan-

A recording of our webinar for the Worshipful Company of Fletchers on London and the Peasants' Revolt, delivered online on 15 June 2021 (the 640th anniversary of the killing of Wat Tyler at Smithfield),  is now available via the project's YouTube Channel. The channel also includes links to other videos on the 1381 revolt featur

15 June 2021 marks the 640th anniversary of the meeting of Richard II at Smithfield with Wat Tyler and his fellow rebels - a key event in the  Peasants' Revolt. An exciting  new research project, ‘The People of 1381’ at the Universities of Reading (Adrian Bell and Herbert Eiden), Oxford (Helen Lacy and Helen Killick), Glasgow (Andrew Pr

Preliminary research findings from The People of 1381 were featured as the cover story of the May 2021 issue of BBC History magazine. The article contains profiles of some of the insurgents whose military connections have been revealed by comparison between records of the rising and the Medieval Soldier database. 

People of 1381 Principal Investigator Professor Adrian Bell was interviewed by Bill Buckley on BBC Radio Berkshire on 24 May 2021. The interview can be heard at https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p09gycyv, beginning at 2:09:00.

From 22 May 2021 for six months, The People of 1381 project will mark the 640th anniversary of the Peasants' Revolt by sending out tweets describing the development of the revolt in real time, emulating how a 14th century twitter might have covered the rising. The tweets can be followed using the hashtag #reliving1381. Enormous

A BBC History Extra podcast in April 2021 featured Professor Adrian Bell and Dr Helen Lacey from 'The People of 1381' discussing the revolt with David Musgrove. You can hear the podcast here:

https://www.historyextra.com/period/medieval/peasants-revolt-who-rebels-podcast-adrian-bell-helen-lacey/

On 14 April 2021, The Guardian included the Estuary Festival, to which the People of 1381 is contributing, among the top ten British arts festivals for 2021. The Guardian listing noted how a number of the activities in The Estuary Festival will be channelling the spirit of 1381 revolt: https://www.theguardian.com/trave

Helen Lacey and Andrew Prescott gave a seminar for English Language & Linguistics at the University of Glasgow on 21 January 2021, Representing the Voices of the People of 1381 . The seminar not only introduced the project but discussed how far it is possible to capture

In the last days of his presidency, Donald Trump made promiscuous use of his power to grant presidential pardons. The roots of Trump's power to grant pardons can be traced back to medieval grants of mercy and there are parallels with the amnesty after the Peasants' Revolt, as this contribution by Adfrian Bell, Helen Lacey and Andrew Prescott to

The last article to be published by History and Policy in 2020 was by 'People of 1381' team members Andrew Prescott, Adrian Bell, Helen Lacey and Anne Curry, and discussed how medieval revolts can help us understand modern mass protest. The article considers how the methodology used by the 'People of 1381' project offers insights into t

'The People of 1381' project is proud to be involved with The Estuary Festival, a major arts festival based in South Essex and North Kent which is a cultural celebration of the north and south shorelines of the Thames Estuary as well as the river itself and takes place from 22 May to 13 June 2021. The areas bordering the Thames Estuary

On 12 November 2020, the Principal Investigator of 'The People of 1381', Professor Adrian Bell, gave an extended introduction to the project which described the database we are developing and showed how comparisons with the Medieval Soldier database are already enabling the project to identify rebels with a military background. Adri

'People of 1381' team members Dr Helen Lacey and Dr Helen Killick are among the contributors to Monarchy, State and Political Culture in Late Medieval England, a collection of essays in honour of the late Professor Mark Ormrod, edited by Gwilym Dodd and Craig Taylor, which was published just before Professor Ormrod's much lamen

Adrian Bell, Helen Lacey and Andrew Prescott from the People of 1381 research team have contributed a chapter to a new open access publication edited by Monica Billio of the Università Ca’ Foscari Ve

'People of 1381' CI Helen Lacey has contributed a video talk introducing the project to the Middle Ages for Educators website: http://middleagesforeducators.com/videos/the-people-of-1381-by-helen-lacey/

Helen's video gives an overview of the rising, explains some of the sources used by the project and tells the story of Margery

People of 1381 CI Dr Helen Lacey of Mansfield College, University of Oxford, appeared on a special edition of BBC Radio Four's The Long View on 22 June 2020 to discuss with Jonathan Freedland the unexpected impact of the Black Death. Helen's interview kicked off a series of Long View programmes forming part of the Radi

'People of 1381' Principal Investigator Professor Adrian Bell of the Henley Business School at the University of Reading features in a new podcast discussing how Europe recovered in the years after the Black Death. The podcast launches Recovery, a new series from The Conversation and Anthill Podcast, exploring key moments i

'The People of 1381' project is freatured in the current (Spring 2020) issue of the Essex Journal, a magazine of local history and archaeology for Essex. Published since 1966, Essex Journal is one of the most successful and exciting local history journals in the UK and the bodies represented on its editorial board incl

People of 1381 CI Dr Helen Lacey discusses medieval responses to 'contagion' for the Mansfield College Oxford website: 'Some measures sound alien to us: flagellation to atone for God’s punishment or vomiting daily from an empty stomach, but others sound strikingly familiar…':

https://www.m

Professor Adrian Bell featured in a visual guide to how humans have reacted to pandemics throughout history in The Guardian on 29 April 2020. He comments that after the Black Death 'There were riots against the Flemish as people tried to deal with the unexplainable. This also happened later during upheaval around the peasan

Our article from 'The Conversation' on comparisons between the economic impact of Coronavirus and the Black Death was translated into Spanish for the BBC Latin America pages:

https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-51750414

Ever wondered what Wat Tyler's Desert Island Discs might look like? People of 1381 PI Professor Adrian Bell imagined his selection for the History blog at the University of Reading: https://unireadinghistory.com/2020/04/07/watt-tyler-aka-professor-adrian-r-bell-historialdesertislanddiscs/

As the restrictions to combat the Covid-19 virus are introduced, the Essex Record Office blog is starting a series of stories on its blog profiling how its researchers are working from home. The first to be featured in the series was 'People of 1381' team member Dr Herbert Eiden, who describes how he is continuing to research the revolt

What the Black Death tells us about the global economic consequences of a pandemic

Republished in Metro online 6/3/2020

What can the Black Death tell us about the global economic consequences of a pandemic?

Original article published in the Conversation on 3/3/2020

Henley Business School Press Release, 29 November 2019

An eye-witness is one of the first individuals whose story is shared on a website launched to host The People of 1381 research project on the Peasants’ Revolt – one of the largest popular uprisings in medieval Europe.

Margery Tawney became caught up in t

Two important new publications by members of the ‘People of 1381’ team explore the wider historical contexts of the revolt. Project Co-Investigator Anne Curry is the editor of The Hundre