Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"On June 15, 1381, King Richard II, a boy of fourteen, went to meet the leaders of the English Peasants' Revolt at Smithfield. The Peasants' Revolt had begun in Essex with protests against the imposition of a poll tax. . . but the violence continued, and on June 14 a mob led by Wat Tyler stormed the Tower of London and beheaded the archbishop of Canterbury and the lord treasurer. . . . The grievances that led up to the revolt had their origins in the social upheavals that followed the Black Death. With a much reduced population, there was a shortage of labor, and the Statutes of Laborers (1351), which attempted to hold down wages, had been bitterly resented. After the death of Wat Tyler and the arrest of other ringleaders, the rebellion collapsed, and by June 25 the first great popular uprising in English history had ended." [Furtado: 1001 Days]