OCR A Level History A Y104-01 England 1377–1455 QUESTION

Using these four sources in their historical context, assess how far they support the view that the government dealt firmly with the Peasants’ Revolt. [30] Source A: A monk writes about events in Kent in 1381. A crowd of turbulent and wicked men overran every district, oppressing the innocent and either killing or ill-treating the king’s judges and the nobles of the realm. After massacres at Canterbury and the neighbouring towns and villages, they gathered all together at Blackheath and sent for the lord king to go there to talk with them to approve them and their worthless doings. He travelled by water and when, from a distance, he saw that violent and disorderly company, he was afraid that if he approached them, he might imperil his royal majesty. Acting upon wise advice, he retreated and went to his Tower of London. William Thorne, Chronicle of St Augustine’s Abbey, Canterbury, written before 1397 Source B: An anonymous chronicler, with connections to the royal court, gives his version of events in 1381. The king was in the Tower, pensive and sad. He went up into a little turret, from where he could see a great number of the commons and he had it proclaimed that they should all go home peacefully and he would pardon every kind of trespass [lesser crimes]. They all cried with one voice that they would not go until they got the traitors in the Tower and had charters of freedom. The king gladly granted these and a clerk wrote out the bills in their presence, promising that he and his council would find remedies for their grievances. He sealed this with his own signet seal