The Peasants' Revolt: What Happened at Smithfield?

Written by Simon Williams

On 15 June 1381, Wat Tyler met King Richard II at Smithfield outside London's walls. A confrontation with Mayor William Walworth left Tyler fatally wounded, finished off by squire Ralph Standish, while the young king rode toward the rebels and persuaded them to disperse.

• Date: 15 June 1381
• Location: Smithfield, a livestock market just outside the City walls of London, near St Bartholomew's Priory
• King: Richard II, aged 14
• Mayor of London: Sir William Walworth
• Rebel leader: Wat Tyler, leader of the Kentish contingent
• Fatal blow: delivered by the royal squire Ralph Standish, after Walworth's sword cut Tyler down
• Outcome: Tyler dead within hours, the rebel army dispersed the same afternoon, the revolt effectively over within days

Picture the scene for a moment. A fourteen year old boy, dressed for a state occasion rather than a battlefield, riding out alone toward several thousand armed men who have just watched their leader bleed out on the ground in front of them. That is what happened at Smithfield on the afternoon of 15 June 1381, and it is one of the strangest gambles in English royal history.

The day before, at Mile End, Richard II had already given the rebels almost everything they demanded: an end to serfdom, cheap rents, and a pardon for the revolt itself. Most of the Essex contingent went home satisfied. But Wat Tyler's Kentish men stayed in London, and Tyler wanted more. Smithfield was meant to be the second, final negotiation. Instead it became the moment the revolt lost its leader, in full view of the crowd he led.

What actually happened in those few minutes at Smithfield is harder to pin down than the popular version suggests. Two very different chronicle accounts survive, written by men with very different relationships to the truth of what they were describing, and historians still argue about which details to trust. This article works through the events step by step, the confrontation, the killing, the king's response, and the conflicting sources that shape what we think we know.

Why a Second Meeting Was Needed

The Mile End meeting on 14 June had gone well for the rebels but badly for royal authority. Richard had agreed to abolish serfdom and grant a general pardon, and royal clerks were set to work drafting charters overnight. Yet while the king was at Mile End, a separate group of rebels had broken into the Tower of London and dragged out Archbishop Simon Sudbury and Treasurer Robert Hales, both of whom were beheaded on Tower Hill. The government had lost control of the city's most secure fortress on the very day it thought it had secured peace.

Tyler was not at Mile End, and he was not satisfied with what had been agreed there. He wanted a direct meeting with the king to press further demands, reportedly including the disendowment of the Church, the abolition of all lordship except the king's own, and equal law for all men. A meeting was arranged for the following afternoon at Smithfield, a large open space just outside the city walls used as a livestock market, close to St Bartholomew's Priory and hospital.

Tyler Rides Out to Meet the King

On the afternoon of 15 June, Richard rode out from Westminster with a small retinue, including the Mayor of London, Sir William Walworth. The rebel host, still numbering in the thousands, gathered on the eastern side of Smithfield. Tyler rode forward alone to meet the king, reportedly on a small horse, and the two men spoke directly.

Accounts of the meeting agree that Tyler's manner toward the king was strikingly informal, even provocative, for the standards of the day. He is said to have called for water to rinse his mouth, then for a jug of ale, drinking in front of the king before continuing the negotiation. Whether this was calculated defiance or simple bluntness, it did nothing to defuse a tense standoff between an armed crowd and a lightly guarded royal party.

The Confrontation with Walworth

What triggered the violence is where the sources start to diverge, but the core sequence is broadly agreed. A dispute broke out, in some versions over Tyler's continued demands, in other versions over Tyler failing to remove his hood or show proper deference in the king's presence. Walworth moved to arrest him. Tyler drew his dagger and struck at the mayor.

Walworth was wearing armour beneath his robes and took no injury from the blow. He struck back with his sword, wounding Tyler in the neck and head. In the scuffle that followed, a member of the king's household, identified in most accounts as the royal squire Ralph Standish, drew his own sword and ran Tyler through the body.

Wat stabbed the mayor with his dagger in the body in great anger, but as the mayor was wearing armour and took no harm, he struck back at the said Wat, giving him a deep cut in the neck, and then a great blow on the head.

Tyler, badly wounded, spurred his horse and rode back toward his own supporters, calling for revenge, before collapsing to the ground within sight of the crowd he had led into London.

Two Versions of How Tyler Died

From here, the sources split on a crucial detail. In one version, Tyler died where he fell. In the version given by the Anonimalle Chronicle, generally regarded as the most detailed contemporary account, Tyler was not yet dead. A group of rebels carried him into the nearby hospital of St Bartholomew's, and it was there that Walworth caught up with him, had him dragged back out into the middle of Smithfield, and ordered him beheaded in front of the assembled crowd.

If the Anonimalle version is accurate, Tyler's death was not simply the accidental outcome of a scuffle. It was a deliberate execution, carried out by the city's chief magistrate, on a man who was already dying, staged in the open space where thousands of rebels could see it happen. That distinction matters. A leader cut down in a chaotic brawl is one kind of story. A leader dragged from his sickbed and beheaded in public is a very different one, and it changes how we should read what happened in the minutes that followed.

Richard's Gamble

With their leader dead or dying and archers reportedly moving into position, the rebel host on the far side of Smithfield began to draw their bows. For a few minutes, the entire outcome of the revolt, and quite possibly the safety of the fourteen year old king, hung on what happened next.

Richard rode forward, alone, toward the rebel line. According to the chronicle tradition, he called out to them directly, telling them he was their captain and their king and urging them to follow him. One widely repeated version of his words runs: "Sirs, would you kill your king? I am your rightful captain, and I will be your leader. Let all those who love me, follow me."

This is the detail that changes everything about how I read Smithfield. Whether the words are recorded exactly or reconstructed by chroniclers writing after the fact, the young king's decision to ride toward an armed crowd rather than retreat behind his guards was a genuine gamble, not a formality. It worked. The rebels lowered their weapons and followed the king out of Smithfield and into the fields at Clerkenwell, where royal reinforcements were now arriving in force. The revolt's most dangerous moment had passed, and its momentum had broken with it.

Two Chronicles, Two Stories

Almost everything we think we know about Smithfield comes from two chronicle traditions that disagree with each other on basic facts. The Anonimalle Chronicle, likely written by someone with close access to London events, gives the fullest and most circumstantial account, including the detail of Tyler's beheading at St Bartholomew's. Jean Froissart, the great Hainault chronicler writing in France and drawing on secondhand reports and courtly informants, produced a vivid but less reliable account, and even gets the mayor's name wrong, calling him Nicholas rather than William Walworth.

I find it telling that the two most detailed surviving accounts of the single most dramatic afternoon of the entire revolt cannot agree on who was present, what was said, or precisely how Tyler died. This is not a flaw specific to Smithfield. It is the normal condition of medieval evidence, and it is exactly the kind of source problem that exam boards expect students to grapple with rather than paper over. The safest position is not to pick a single "correct" version but to understand what each chronicler's position and audience shaped them to emphasise.

Froissart's chronicles were later illustrated in spectacular detail, including a well known miniature of the Smithfield confrontation now held by the British Library as part of the manuscript known as the Harley Froissart. The image shows Walworth striking Tyler down in the foreground while Richard looks on, a dramatic simplification of events that shaped popular memory of Smithfield for centuries, regardless of how closely it matched what actually happened.

Aftermath at Smithfield

The immediate consequences were swift and one sided. Richard knighted Walworth on the spot, along with several other Londoners who had stood with him, a rare mark of royal gratitude for a merchant class figure. Within days, the promises made at Mile End were quietly withdrawn. Royal forces moved through Essex and Kent hunting down remaining rebel bands, and by early July the revolt that had briefly controlled London was over.

Understanding exactly how and why the crown's authority reasserted itself so quickly after Smithfield is central to the wider story of the poll tax and the government's response to it. Readers who want the fuller thirty year arc, from the Statute of Labourers through to the collapse of the revolt itself, will find the connecting threads in our companion piece on the Black Death and the Peasants' Revolt, which traces exactly how a labour shortage after 1348 hardened into the legal grievances that exploded at Smithfield thirty three years later. For readers who want to go deeper still into the study guides built around this period, our Price of Survival study guide follows the same story from the plague years through to 1381 in full depth.

Smithfield is where the Peasants' Revolt stopped being a negotiation and became a story about how quickly a movement can lose momentum once its leader is gone. Tyler's death did not end the underlying grievances that caused the revolt, wage controls under the Statute of Labourers continued to provoke resistance for years afterward, a story our Labour Machine study guide covers in detail, but it ended the revolt as an organised force capable of threatening the crown directly.

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This article is part of the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 series. Explore all articles at historiesandcastles.com/blogs/historical-events/timeline-peasants-revolt-1381.

→ Timeline of the Peasants' Revolt of 1381: the full dated chronology of the revolt, from the May 1381 poll tax collections through to its collapse in early July, with Smithfield in context alongside every other key date.

→ Who Was Wat Tyler?: a full biography of the rebel leader, covering his emergence at Dartford and Rochester through to his conduct at Mile End and his death at Smithfield.

→ King Richard II and the Peasants' Revolt: how the fourteen year old king's conduct at Mile End and Smithfield shaped his early reign, and the debate over whether his courage was genuine or calculated.

→ Causes of the Peasants' Revolt: the immediate and long term causes that brought Tyler's Kentish rebels to London's gates in the first place.

→ The Poll Tax of 1381 Explained: the mechanics of the tax, its collection, and the Fobbing enforcement visit that first sparked resistance in Essex.

→ Who Was John Ball?: the radical priest whose Blackheath sermon gave the revolt its most famous words, executed weeks after Smithfield on Richard's orders.

→ Black Death and the Peasants' Revolt — the thirty year causal chain connecting the 1348 plague to the events at Smithfield, tracing labour shortage into legal grievance into open revolt.

Did Wat Tyler die instantly at Smithfield?

Not according to the most detailed contemporary source. The Anonimalle Chronicle states that Tyler survived his initial wounds from Walworth and the royal squire Ralph Standish long enough to be carried by supporters into the nearby hospital of St Bartholomew's. Walworth then had him dragged back out into the middle of Smithfield and beheaded in front of the crowd. Other, less detailed accounts imply he died where he fell, so the precise sequence remains debated among historians.

Who actually killed Wat Tyler?

Three men are implicated across the surviving sources. Mayor William Walworth struck the first serious blow with his sword after Tyler attacked him with a dagger, cutting Tyler's neck and head, though this alone may not have been fatal. The royal squire Ralph Standish is generally credited with delivering the fatal wound, running Tyler through the body during the scuffle. If the Anonimalle Chronicle's account is accurate, Walworth also ordered Tyler's eventual beheading at St Bartholomew's.

What did Richard II say to the rebels at Smithfield?

Chroniclers record Richard riding out alone toward the armed rebel host and declaring himself their captain and king, urging them to follow him rather than resist. One widely cited version has him saying: "Sirs, would you kill your king? I am your rightful captain, and I will be your leader. Let all those who love me, follow me." The exact wording cannot be verified, but the substance, a direct personal appeal that defused an armed standoff, is consistent across the chronicle tradition.

Why do the Anonimalle Chronicle and Froissart disagree about Smithfield?

The two chroniclers had very different vantage points. The Anonimalle Chronicle was likely compiled by someone with close access to events in London, and gives the fullest, most circumstantial account. Jean Froissart was a Hainault chronicler working from secondhand reports gathered later, and his account contains errors of basic fact, including misnaming Mayor Walworth as Nicholas rather than William. Historians generally treat the Anonimalle account as the more reliable of the two.

What happened to the rebels after Tyler's death?

The rebel host at Smithfield, faced with the loss of their leader and Richard's direct appeal, lowered their weapons and followed the king out to Clerkenwell fields, where royal reinforcements were arriving. Without unified leadership, the wider revolt lost momentum rapidly. Royal forces moved through Essex and Kent over the following weeks, and by early July the promises made at Mile End had been withdrawn and the revolt as an organised movement was over.

Where was Smithfield in medieval London?

Smithfield was a large open area just outside the City of London's walls, traditionally used as a livestock market, close to the priory and hospital of St Bartholomew's. Its size and position outside the city gates made it a practical location for a large armed crowd to gather without entering the city itself, and its proximity to St Bartholomew's hospital became directly relevant to the disputed accounts of how Tyler died.

Primary Sources and Further Reading

V. H. Galbraith, editor (1927): The Anonimalle Chronicle, 1333 to 1381, Manchester University Press. The fullest surviving contemporary account of the Smithfield confrontation, including the detail of Tyler's beheading at St Bartholomew's. The manuscript is held in the Brotherton Collection, University of Leeds.

British Library: Jean Froissart, Chroniques (the Harley Froissart, Harley MS 4380), a fifteenth century illuminated manuscript containing a famous depiction of the Smithfield confrontation, held in the British Library's collections and displayed in the Sir John Ritblat Gallery, Treasures of the British Library.

Juliet Barker (2014): 1381: The Year of the Peasants' Revolt, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. A detailed modern narrative history working through the surviving chronicle evidence for Smithfield and the wider revolt.

Dan Jones (2009): Summer of Blood: The Peasants' Revolt of 1381, HarperCollins. A narrative account of the revolt aimed at general readers, covering the Smithfield confrontation and its aftermath.

Note: the exact sequence of events at Smithfield, including whether Tyler died where he fell or was beheaded later at St Bartholomew's, and the precise wording of Richard II's appeal to the rebels, are matters of ongoing historical interpretation rather than settled fact. The account above follows the Anonimalle Chronicle tradition, generally regarded by historians as the more reliable source for events inside London, while noting where Froissart's account diverges.

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