The People of 1381

The People of 1381 will produce the most detailed and comprehensive interpretation to date of the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, one of the most dramatic moments in English history. By creating a comprehensive database of the thousands of people and places caught up in the rising, the project will enable for the first time the development of a holistic overview of the revolt. This will shed light on the complex economic and social relations of the revolt and help us understand the role of violence and insurgency in pre-modern politics. The records of the revolt offer a remarkable opportunity to explore the lives, aspirations and frustrations of those usually hidden from view so that we can understand their political motivations and the way in which they viewed government and politics. The English 1381 Revolt forms part of a wider upsurge in European political unrest and revolt in the later middle ages. The People of 1381 by providing the first comprehensive analysis of the participants of a medieval European revolt will assist in understanding the nature and significance of insurgency in later medieval Europe more generally.

The People of 1381 is a methodologically innovative project. Drawing on the exceptionally detailed archival records of the prosecutions arising from the 1381 revolt, we will create a database providing the first overview of events, places and people in the rising. By linking this to other databases, such as the Medieval Soldier database and records of the Poll Taxes, we will identify patterns of involvement in the rising. The creation of a database will enable us to explore in considerable detail such questions as: who was involved in the rising; what were the strategies and method of protest; and what motives, discourses and identities were articulated. The use of Geographic Information Systems will allow us to dynamically map the development and structure of the rising, so that we can identify differing community levels of protest and see how these fitted together into a revolt that threatened at one stage to topple the government. By exploring the textuality of the records generated by the rising, we will enhance understanding of the political and cultural impact of the revolt and the way it shaped popular polity and the political community.

By recreating the biographies of thousands of people who became caught up in the rising of 1381 and by reconstructing the role of different places, we will offer a new type of 'history from below' for medieval studies. We will examine the lives of hundreds of people usually hidden from view and understand their political motivations and the way in which they related to government. Our emphasis on the importance of exploring the lives of forgotten social groups and people give our impact activities a particular relevance and vibrancy. We will use the people of 1381 to develop a new and exciting approach to the Middle Ages for those who might previously have believed this to be an inaccessible period of history. At the heart of the preoccupations of those involved in the rising of 1381 were ideas of community and how communities should be protected and nurtured. Correspondingly, we believe that the study of the rising of 1381 can help foster a modern sense of community and engagement with the past, and the impact activities associated with The People of 1381 will help foster such community histories.

The People of 1381 will make the lives of ordinary people in the Middle Ages accessible to a wide public audience. The project will, for the first time, reveal that the people who took part in the most important pre-modern English revolt are not lost to posterity, and that the issues at stake for them do still resonate with us today. We hope to enhance public debates on the historical context of perennial hot topics such as tax protests, governmental collection of data and regional autonomy. The two central groups of beneficiaries we will seek to engage will be local communities and educators, but other beneficiaries will include school aged children and genealogists.

1. Local communities:
By working with local communities, we aim to foster the sense of local identity and heritage and engage people from a diverse range of backgrounds for whom medieval history might seem remote, irrelevant or simply unknown. The focus of the 1381 Rising provides a great opportunity to do this, with the involvement of minority groups and working class protest. This is not simply a history of remote, privileged elites. The speeches of the rebels who demanded social justice can be voiced by people for whom their concerns resonate today. As well as learning about 'history from below', the project will enable people in local communities to contribute to the project and make a difference to our research. This co-creation of the touring exhibition will give a sense of ownership of history, and remove the sense of distance that many feel when learning about their past.

2. Educators:
Teachers from KS2 to KS5 need support to create resources and foster the teaching of medieval history at all stages in the history curriculum. Our project will demonstrate the relevance of the 1381 Rising to communities that find it hard to relate to medieval lives and provide subject-based training for their own CPD and to enhance teaching practice. The Teaching Fellowship Scheme, in collaboration with the Historical Association, will enable teachers to engage with the latest research into medieval history. This will demonstrate the relevance of individual lives in the Middle Ages to current life, exploring the larger issues of community, difference, acceptance and violence, therefore potentially impacting on other areas of the school curriculum.

3. Primary and secondary school age children:
The pupils of the teachers involved in the Teaching Fellowship Scheme will directly benefit from the new resources and historical knowledge. However, in order to impact on a wider range of children the children's poetry competition on 1381, in collaboration with The Poetry Society, will encourage children to feel they can access lives from the remote past at an emotional level, and not just in the classroom. Children will be given the opportunity to engage with poets, develop new skills in poetry and creative writing, and will benefit from seeing that historical research can be relevant in the arts.

4. Genealogists:
Genealogists are keen to find new resources that will help them with their research, and by collaborating with groups of genealogists we will open up these new resources. They will benefit from seeing how individual stories link to the bigger picture of the people of 1381.

Legacy:
The longer-term legacy of the project will be secured in two main ways: firstly with permanent displays at several of the venues visited by the travelling exhibition; secondly via online teaching materials, stories and audio-dramas made publicly available on our website and in conjunction with the Historical Association. Thus the project will permanently enhance the provision for access to people's history, both in the regions associated with the Revolt and in London.