John Ball, (died July 15, 1381, St. Albans, Hertfordshire, Eng.), one of the leaders of the Peasants’ Revoltin England.
A sometime priest at York and at Colchester, Ball was excommunicated about 1366 for inflammatory sermons advocating a classless society, but he continued to preach in open marketplaces and elsewhere. After 1376 he was often imprisoned, and at the outbreak of the rebellion (June 1381) he was rescued from Maidstone prison by Kentish rebels, whom he accompanied to London. There he incited a crowd at Blackheath with the popular text “When Adam dalf [dug] and Eve span [spun], Who was then a gentleman?” An account in the Anonimalle Chronicle by a witness of the London events states that he urged the killing of lords and prelates.
After the rebellion collapsed, Ball was tried and hanged at St. Albans. Knowledge of his career comes almost entirely from prejudiced chroniclers. Jean Froissart calls him the mad priest of Kent. Ball is the subject of William Morris’s romance A Dream of John Ball.
The Peasants’ Revolt
Also called Wat Tyler’s Rebellion, (1381), first great popular rebellion in English history. Its immediate cause was the imposition of the unpopular poll tax of 1381, which brought to a head the economic discontent that had been growing since the middle of the century. The rebellion drew support from several sources and included well-to-do artisans and villeins as well as the destitute. Probably the main grievance of the agricultural labourers and urban working classes was the Statute of Labourers (1351), which attempted to fix maximum wages during the labour shortage following the Black Death.
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Images: Colchester Town Hall.
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