EROP Double Header: New Discoveries in the Life of John Ball

Recent research into the Radical Preacher and Rebel Leader of the 1381 Peasants' Revolt

Part 1 of our historic double header.

You can book our morning and afternoon talks individially or together at a discounted rate.

For details of our afternooon talk "Origins of the Roman and Saxon landscape", click here.

Speakers: Helen Lacey, Andrew Prescott and Herbert Eiden

As part of the People of 1381 Project, the team have investigated the background of various people involved. This research highlights the role of the clergy in resisting royal taxation in the decades before the revolt. It has also brought to light new information about the early life of John Ball, which contradicts the traditional narrative of his life and presents a picture of a home-grown heretic, preaching radical Christian egalitarianism to a dedicated circle of followers.

Helen Lacey, Andrew Prescott and Herbert Eiden will discuss the problems with the traditional narrative of John Ball’s life and then reveal their new findings about Ball’s life, his heresy, the attitudes of contemporary Bishops to his preaching. They will also show how this fits with a longer-term pattern of clerical resistance to taxation in the decades before the revolt of 1381.

Registration, tea and coffee from 10:30am with our talk starting at 11:00am