ABSTRACT
The Rising of 1381 looms over any discussion of changing lord-tenant relations in the late fourteenth century. Throughout England, the quick recovery after the Black Death eventually turned sour. Peasants and laborers continued to demand higher wages while refusing to perform customary services, and more and more tenancies fell vacant. Rents fell and eventually so did prices. As a result, English lords felt a need to demand more and greater “villein” dues from their tenants, even their free tenants. This increasing heavy handedness pushed many peasants to the edge, and when national matters compounded these woes, many peasants in southern and eastern England rose in revolt in 1381. In Durham, however, there was no rising; instead, internal matters consumed the peasantry’s attention. After examining the slender bishopric evidence, Britnell observed that “[a]t a time when the rebels in London were murdering the archbishop of Canterbury, the bishop of Durham’s men were more anxious to stop the people from killing each other” (1990, 39–40). The statement is far truer for the Priory main estate, and it was far more than individual violence; when many peasants and artisans were uniting against oppression in other parts of England, the Priory communities ripped themselves asunder.
