On 30 May 1381, resistance to the poll tax broke out in Brentwood, Essex.

The government was trying to raise money for the war with France. The poll tax had already caused anger because it was difficult to avoid and fell on many ordinary people. When officials came to investigate unpaid taxes in Essex, they met refusal.

Brentwood became one of the starting points of the Peasants’ Revolt. The dispute was local, but it did not remain local for long. People in Essex resisted the tax inquiry, and unrest spread. Kent soon became central as well. Within days, the rising had become a direct challenge to the royal government.

The anger was not only about one tax. Since the Black Death, labour had become more valuable, but laws tried to hold down wages and restrict movement. Many people resented landlords, local officials and the courts that enforced those rules. The poll tax brought that resentment into the open.

Richard II was fourteen. Government was carried out in his name by councillors and royal officers. When people refused to cooperate with the tax inquiry, they were not only avoiding payment; they were also risking criminal charges. They were rejecting the authority behind it.

The revolt moved quickly. Rebels gathered, travelled towards London and forced the king’s government into crisis. The best-known scenes came later, with Blackheath, the entry into London and Wat Tyler’s meeting with Richard II at Smithfield. Brentwood came before that.

The date keeps the focus on the revolt’s beginning, before the larger story takes over. A tax inquiry in Essex exposed anger about labour, lordship, officials and royal power.