1. Wat Tyler was a leader of the 1381 Peasants' Revolt in England.
12 Facts About Wat Tyler
1. 2.
Wat Tyler led a group of rebels from Canterbury to London to oppose the collection of a poll tax and to demand economic and social reforms.
3.
How Wat Tyler became involved with the revolt is unknown, although a much later 16th-century source indicates that a man of a similar name, John Wat Tyler, was its initiator.
4.
At first, the meeting seems to have gone well, with Wat Tyler treating the king in a friendly, if overly familiar, manner, and Richard agreeing the rebels "should have all that he could fairly grant".
5.
Sir John Newton insulted Wat Tyler by calling him "the greatest thief and robber in all of Kent".
6.
Wat Tyler then attempted to stab Walworth who was saved by his armour.
7.
Wat Tyler managed to ride 30 yards before he fell from his horse.
8.
Wat Tyler's head was placed atop a pole and carried through the city, then displayed on London Bridge.
9.
Wat Tyler is the protagonist in Pierce Egan the Younger's novel Wat Tyler, or the Rebellion of 1381, a highly radical text published at the height of the second phase of the Chartist movement that argued for republican government in England.
10.
Wat Tyler appears as a main character in William Harrison Ainsworth's Merry England; or, Nobles and Serfs.
11.
Wat Tyler is mentioned in Redburn by Herman Melville and in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain.
12.
Wat Tyler is the principal character in the historical novel Now is the Time by Melvyn Bragg.