Reviews

Bond Men Made Free: Medieval Peasant Movements and the English Rising of 1381 by R.H. Hilton

sophronisba's review

challenging informative slow-paced

4.0

If Summer of Blood, Dan Jones's account of the Wat Tyler Riots, is all action and little context, Bond Men Made Free is the exact opposite: so much context, context that reaches back a couple of centuries and extends across Europe, but a scant seven pages devoted to the riots themselves. A lot of what Hilton has to say here is interesting -- he has a particular interest in social class, typical of a historian in the 1970s -- and I'm glad I read the book. But I'm really glad I read Summer of Blood first, because I might have been lost otherwise.

resolutereader's review

5.0

"peasants struggled to maximise their share of the product of their own labour, and to try and avoid obligations to the lords beyond the absolutely necessity. However what is striking about the wider peasant movements discussed here, both in England and Europe, is the way that often peasants raised wider demands which challenged the nature of the feudal system.

To see this clearly, Hilton examines in detail the events of the Peasants' Revolt in England in 1381. The roots of this revolt, as discussed elsewhere, are complex. One key factor was the growing tendency for those in rural communities to demand increased wages, as a result of labour shortages following the decimation of the Black Death. This was recognised by the authorities who attempted, through various legislation, to limit wage rises and punish those calling for more. Hilton concludes that "it was serfdom and those things which flowed from the rights of lords over tenants which bulked largest in [peasant] grievances."

Full review: http://resolutereader.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/rodney-hilton-bond-men-made-free.html