Wat Tyler's Rebellion (The Peasants' Revolt)

Our story is about a villain. Wait, our story is about a medieval villain. The word was spelled V-I-L-L-E-I-N in those days. And it was a word that was neither booed nor his. In fact, a villain wasn't a villain at all.

He was just a peasant, a serf, living on the land of some lord or gentleman. Then the villain of a serf got tired of being more or less a slave and revolted. It was then that the word took on its shady implications.

That's the story we tell this week, in We Came This Way. The NBC University of the Air presents We Came This Way, a new historical series for our listeners at home and abroad. With John W. Vanderkook as the narrator, we present Chapter Two, a story of the revolt of the peasants in We Came This Way. Some say the revolt began this way, where the girls

singing in her father's kitchen on a morning and spring. Ask the questions. Who are you? Father's name? What's the title? I'll call him. He's in the shed, Yonder. That's him hammering. No. Wait. My business with you. Who are you? Yes, one of John Legman come to collect the head tax from all the folders.

We're not the folders. My father paid. He said the head tax was unjust, but he paid. He did not pay for you. Why? Because the tax was levied only on men and women. Don't you see? I'm not a woman yet.

I see nothing of the sword. No, not a woman. I'm not. As for that, we shall soon find out. No, no. Keep still, girl. Keep still. So the story goes. Fact or legend we do not know.