The post below might appear to be about mid-summer rather than mid-winter; but it has a message about 12th Night, wassailing, and medieval mummery.
Forget
Magna Carta Day, It’s Wat Tyler Day
‘When
Adam delved
And
Eve span
Who
was then the gentleman?’
(John
Ball)
June 15th might have been the
date on which Magna Carta was sealed in 1215, but June 15th also
marks the anniversary of the stabbing of Wat Tyler, the leader of the Peasants’
Revolt, in 1381.
‘John Schep, sometime Saint Mary’s priest
of York, and now of Colchester, greeteth well John Nameless, and John the
Miller, and John Carter, and biddeth them that they beware of guile in borough,
and stand together in God’s name. and biddeth Piers Plowman go to his work, and
chastise well Hob the Robber, and take with you John Trueman, and all his
fellows, and no more.’ (John Ball)
‘John
the Miller hath ground small, small, small;
The
King’s son in heaven shall pay for all.
Beware
or ye be woe,
Know
your friend from your foe,
Have
enough, and say ho!
And
do well, and better, and flee sin,
And
seek peace and hold you therein,
And
pray for John Trueman and all his fellows.’
(John
Ball)
‘The king, for the sake of peace and
because of the circumstances at that time, granted the commons at their
petition, a charter under his great seal – declaring that all men in the realm
of England should be free and of free condition; they and their heirs should be
forever released from the yoke of servitude and villeinage.’ (Henry Knighton)
‘Richard, by the grace of God, king of
England and France, and lord of Ireland, to all his bailiffs and faithful men
to whom these present letters come, greetings. Know that by our special grace
we have manumitted all our liegemen, subjects, and others … and we have freed
and quitted each of them from bondage by the present letters.’ (Charter)
June 15th 1381, the meeting at
Smithfield, when Wat Tyler ‘half bent his knee and took the king by the hand,
shaking his hand fully and roughly, saying to him “Brother, be of good comfort
and joyful, for you shall have, in the fortnight that is to come, forty
thousand more commons than you have at present, and we shall be good
companions.” And the king said, “Why will you not go back to your own country?”
But the other answered with great oath that neither he nor his fellows would
leave until they had got their charter as they wished to have it with the
inclusion of certain points.’ (Thomas Walsingham)
‘The rebels petitioned the king that all
preserves of water, parks, and woods should be made common to all: so that
throughout the kingdom the poor as well as the rich should be free to take game
in water, fish ponds, woods and forests as well as to hunt hares in the fields
– and to do these and many other things without impediment.’ (Henry Knighton)
The Lord Mayor of London was William
Walworth and it was he who killed Wat Tyler:
‘Walworth knocked him in the gutter with
his baselard, stabbing him unawares. Ever since the dagger has been part of the
City of London coat-of-arms or crest, the urban bourgeoisie coming to power on
the backs of the Peasants’ Revolt … Wat Tyler was assassinated by William
Walworth, Lord Mayor, who made his money from the Flemish sex workers in the
Southwark brothels. London, the famed haunt of the international bourgeoisie,
has its crested origin in a pander, an assassin, and sex-trafficker.’
(Ann Arbor, Wat Tyler Day: The Anglo Juneteenth, Chapter Ten in Stop, Thief, Peter Linebaugh Spectre
2014)
1.
That no one was to be put to
death, save for some reason – (except the Common People).
2.
That everyone should be free -
(except the Common People).
3.
That everything should be of
the same weight and measure throughout the Realm - (except the Common People).
4.
That the Barons should not be
tried except by a special group of other Barons who would understand.
Magna Charter was therefore the chief cause
of Democracy in England, and thus a Good
Thing for everyone (except the Common People).
1066
And All That ,Sellar
and Yeatman, from their 1930 classic, on Magna Charter (‘on account of the
Latin Magna (great) and Charter (a
Charter)’).
So how should we commemorate and celebrate
Wat Tyler Day? What acts of guerrilla memorialization can we carry out, to
symbolize a land where rights are held in common?
Pasture and turbary,
Estovers and piscary;
Pannage and housebote,
Shack and ploughbote.
Perhaps you could beat the bounds of your
parish, chanting this rhyme of common rights and pass leaflets to spectators
with an explanation.
“The law locks up the man or woman
Who steals the goose from
off the common
But leaves the greater
villain loose
Who steals the common from
off the goose.”
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