How Did The Hundred Years War Affect The Peasants Revolt Of 1381

The crises of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were affected by one another because each crisis was interconnected with the next. One example of this was the effects that the battles of the Hundred Years War had on helping to fuel the English Peasants Revolt of 1381. The Hundred Years War slowly encouraged the Peasant's Revolt of 1381 because it was instrumental in the collapse of the feudal system, it brought about technology that caused a need for peasant soldiers thereby giving them power, and the peasants were simply tired of paying the high taxes that were supporting the long war. Given the circumstances of peasants during the Medieval period, it is surprising that there were not more peasant revolts. There was a feudal system

By 1381, England and France had been at war for more than four decades. There was a constant need for money to support the hiring of troops, feeding and clothing the troops, and purchasing weapons to be used in battles. This caused taxes to be put in place that the peasants were made to pay. Although the peasants did not fully fund the war, they did contribute to the war efforts. There was a great need for economic support, and the burden fell to the peasants through taxes. One of these taxes was the poll tax, which was introduced by Richard II. This tax stated that each household would have to pay an additional fee to help fund the Hundred Years War. By this time, the peasants were enraged with the taxes they were forced to pay, feeling that they were unfair. The common people refused to pay this tax, and upon refusal they were to be arrested. But the peasants stood their ground and refused to be arrested as well. This tax was their "last straw"; they began an uprising which became known as the Peasant's Revolt of 1381. The peasants were done being treated as second class citizens and demanded "that there should be equality among all people save only the King" (Oman,