One of the most significant events in Medieval England was the Peasants Revolt which took
place in 1381.
The lower classes in the country were very unhappy with what was happening to them, as
they were becoming poorer and a number of other taxes in the wake of the Black Death.
There were many economic and political tensions but the rebels marched into London and caused
a huge amount of chaos.
Many people were killed by the Peasants Revolt, including one man who was the most senior
figure in the Church of England.
Simon Sudbury was the Archbishop of Canterbury and he was a senior figure in the Kings government,
however he was executed on Tower Hill outside of the Tower of London by the baying crowd
who wanted his blood.
He was a prominent member of the 14th century government, but was brutally slain by the
rebels.
Join us today as we look at the Horrific execution of Archbishop of Canterbury Simon Sudbury.
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Born around 1316, Simon Sudbury rose to a number of positions in the church and government
in the 1300s.
He was the son of Nigel Theobald of Sudbury in Suffolk, and as a young man he was sent
to the University of Paris in France to study.
He rose to become one of the personal chaplains and priests of Pope Innocent VI, the most
senior figure in the Catholic Church.
However he was then in 1356 sent on a mission to Edward III, the English King.
However he remained part of the English government following this, and in 1361 he was made the
Chancellor of Salisbury.
Then in the October of that year the Pope asked him to become the Bishop of London and
he was consecrated in the following year.
This was a very senior position in English worship, but he was then working as a Papal
ambassador for the English King Edward III and also as an advisor for him.
He was close with the King and for this on the 4th May 1375, he then became the Archbishop
of Canterbury.
This was the most senior position in the English Church at the time, but in June 1377 Edward
III died and it was Simon Sudbury who crowned the new King, Richard II at Westminster Abbey.
In his position as Archbishop of Canterbury, Sudbury faced reformers and dealt with them
strongly.
For example in 1376, John Wycliffe the reformer faced him and he then took actions against
him.
He was deemed a strong heretic and was viewed as a dangerous individual.
Following his death, his bones were even dug up and then burned in a fire as he was seen
as so dangerous.
But In January 1380, Sudbury then became the Lord Chancellor who was responsible of the
countries finance, and with this the peasants who later rose up thought he was one of the
main people who inflicted the financial suffering on them.
When the Peasants Revolt broke out, it’s unlikely that many people believed how influential
and important it would be.
They advanced from Kent to the capital and the force was armed with sticks battle-axes,
swords and bows.
The revolt reached Blackheath on the 12th June 1381, and news reached the King.
Richard II travelled by boat on the Thames into London and he stayed inside of the Tower
of London for safety.
He was joined by his mother and Archbishop Sudbury along with Lord High Treasurer Sir
Robert Hales and the Earls of Arundel, Warwick and Salisbury.
The King tried to get the rebels to return home but this was in vain, and there were
conversations with the advisors and the King in the Tower of London how to deal with the
revolt.
Many of the military commanders were in France and in Europe, and England was weak at the
time.
The rebels crossed London Bridge and the defences on the bridge were opened from the inside
and they entered rather easily.
They made their way towards Aldgate and swept through the city, and they then assembled
a list of people who they wanted to execute.
They wanted Richard II to hand over Simon Sudbury for execution, and he was widely hated
by the crowds.
On the morning of the 14th June, the crowd continued along the River Thames and burned
down houses of officials around Westminster.
They freed the prisoners inside the jail and also inside Newgate Prison, and they hunted
foreigners and killed them in the streets.
The King’s government was isolated in the Tower of London and the King had left that
morning to try and negotiate.
However the King left Simon Sudbury behind in the Tower as he may have wanted to distance
himself from the figures of hatred.
Whilst Richard was at Mile End talking to Rebels, the Tower of London was taken by the
peasants.
This force approached the castles and the gates were open to allow the King back into
the Tower and 400 rebels entered the fortress with no resistance.
Guards gave over to them, and once inside they stormed the different rooms and were
hunting down their key targets.
They found Archbishop Simon Sudbury in the chapel of the White Tower.
He was saying mass at the time and was in deep prayer, but without a second to think
he was dragged out of the oldest part of the Tower and was then dragged out to Tower Hill.
He was carried by the peasants whilst people threw things and booed him, and when he arrived
on Tower Hill it’s likely that he begged for his life.
On Tower Hill it was recorded that the crowd surrounded Sudbury and Sir Robert Hales the
Lord High Treasurer who had been captured.
It was said that Sudbury was then beheaded by eight frenzied sword blows to his neck,
and that the person playing the role of the executioner struggled to take his head clean
off.
After his head had come off, the executioner then took off one of his fingers from his
hand to the crowd that were cheering wildly.
After this his head was then placed on a pole above London Bridge and his clerical hood
was nailed too it, with no questions as to who’s head this was.
His body was then left out cast aside for days, before it was then taken to Cantebury
Cathedral.
His head was taken down six days later by the Lord Mayor of London and was taken to
Sudbury Church where it is still held today and can still be seen.
His body was interred in Canterbury Cathedral and a cannonball was placed where his head
should have been.
Simon Sudbury was a brutal victim of the peasants revolt, but he was a figure of hatred and
oppression inside of England at the time.
The crowd would have been baying for his blood, and it was certain when he was seized inside
of the Tower of London that he would have been brutally slain by the crowd.
Ultimately the peasants revolt failed with the crowd being promised what they wanted,
but they never benefitted from the changes that were promised and these never came.
But still today the peasants revolt is considered one of the most shocking events of Medieval
England.
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