June 15– From “Wat Tyler’s Rebellion” Froissart’s "Chronicles" (1300s) translated by Lord Bernes and edited by G.C. Macaulay

 Yay rebellion music

June 15– From “Wat Tyler’s Rebellion” Froissart’s Chronicles (1300s) translated by Lord Bernes and edited by G.C. Macaulay

Summary: Commoners revolt. How rude.

Commentary: It's been a while since I talked about the "liberal" in liberal education. The gist being that liberal here denotes a free person, and a liberal education is the type someone deserved/would need to be free. Froissart is not a fan of freedom for the lower classes.

 all because of the ease and riches that the common people were of, which moved them to this rebellion, as sometime they did in France, the which did much hurt, for by such incidents the realm of France hath been greatly grieved.

 [...]

There was an usage in England, and yet is in divers countries, that the noblemen hath great franchise over the commons and keepeth them in servage, that is to say, their tenants ought by custom to labour the lords' lands, to gather and bring home their corns, and some to thresh and to fan, and by servage to make their hay and to hew their wood and bring it home. All these things they ought to do by servage, and there be more of these people in England than in any other realm

Another thing I haven't mentioned in a while is Elliot's explanation that you're not supposed to agree with everything in T5FSOB, but that it's supposed to demonstrate the range of human thought. I think this is a great exercise in general, but I especially appreciate Froissant "saying the quiet part out loud" as the saying goes here. There are people out there who 100% think we'd be better off going to 1-10% of the population owning the rest of us, they just aren't generally as forthright about it as Froissant is.

I guess I should note that this is an edited translation, so it's possible Froissant's original was less critical of the rebels.