What was the Use of The Peasants' Revolt? (Day Twenty-Six)

Topics like today's featured article on Wikipedia reminds, and thus refreshes, me as to the reason behind commencing this whole blogging enterprise.

The Peasants' Revolt "was a major uprising across large parts of England in 1381. The revolt had various causes, including the socio-economic and political tensions generated by the Black Death in the 1340s, the high taxes resulting from the conflict with France during the Hundred Years' War, and instability within the local leadership of London. The final trigger for the revolt..." came from "John Bampton, in Essex on 30 May 1381,... attempt[ing] to collect unpaid poll taxes in Brentwood... A wide spectrum of rural society, including many local artisans and village officials, rose up in protest, burning court records and opening the local gaols. The rebels sought a reduction in taxation, an end to the system of unfree labour known as serfdom and the removal of the King's senior officials and law courts."

Richard II meets the rebels on 13 June 1381 in a miniature from a 1470s copy of Jean Froissart's Chronicles.

On 13 June, the rebels entered London and, joined by many local townsfolk, attacked the gaols, destroyed the Savoy Palace, set fire to law books and buildings in the Temple, and killed anyone associated with the royal government. The following day, [King Richard II, then aged 14,] met the rebels at Mile End and acceded to most of their demands, including the abolition of serfdom. 

After William Walworth, the then mayor of London, had hastily gathered a militia from the city and started dispersing the rebel forces. "Richard immediately began to re-establish order in London and rescinded his previous grants to the rebels... Unrest continued until the intervention of Henry le Despenser, who defeated a rebel army at the Battle of North Walsham on 25 or 26 June. Troubles extended north to York, Beverley and Scarborough, and as far west as Bridgwater in Somerset. Richard mobilised 4,000 soldiers to restore order. Most of the rebel leaders were tracked down and executed; by November, at least 1,500 rebels had been killed."

Interpretations of the revolt have shifted over the years. It was once seen as a defining moment in English history, but modern academics [mostly, due to the scholarship of May McKisack, Michael Postan and Richard Dobson] are less certain of its impact on subsequent social and economic history.... The revolt has been widely used in socialist literature, including by the author William Morris, and remains a potent political symbol for the political left...

In short, I have two takeaways: 1.) History remembers mobs and their violence poorly, and 2.) External forces rarely effect reliable change, if not coupled by strong internal advocates.

Also, I highly encourage all to read Section: 1.1 Economics.  It is quite a succinct account of pre-industrial European labor markets. (Further suggested reading: Douglass C. North and Robert Paul Thomas's The Rise of the Western World: A New Economy History.)