of June, two days
after the death of Tyler, a proclamation was issued forbidding
unauthorized gatherings of people; on the 23d a second, requiring all
tenants, villains, and freemen alike to perform their usual services
to their lords; and on the 2d of July a third, withdrawing the
charters of pardon and manumission which had been granted on the 15th
of June. Special sessions of the courts were organized in the
rebellious districts, and the leaders of the revolt were searched out
and executed by hanging or decapitation.

On the 3d of November Parliament met. The king's treasurer explained
that he had issued the charters under constraint, and recognizing
their illegality, with the expectation of withdrawing them as soon as
possible, which he had done. The suggestion of the king that the
villains should be regularly enfranchised by a statute was declined in
vigorous terms by Parliament. Laws were passed relieving all those who
had made grants under compulsion from carrying them out, enabling
those whose charters had been destroyed to obtain new ones under the
great seal, granting exemption from prosecution to all who had
exercised illegal violence in putting down the late insurrection, and
finally granting a general pardon, though with many exceptions, to the
late insurgents.

Thus the rising of June, 1381, had become a matter of the past by the
close of the year. The general conditions which brought about a
popular uprising have already been discussed. The specific objects
which the rioters had in view in each part of the country are a much
more obscure and complicated question.

There is no reason to believe that there was any general political
object, other than opposition to the new and burdensome taxation, and
disgust with the existing ministry. Nor was there any religious object
in view. No doubt a large part of the disorder had no general purpose
whatever, but consisted in an attempt, at a period of confusion and
relaxation of the law, to settle by violence purely local or personal
disputes and grievances.

Apart from these considerations the objects of the rioters were of an
economic nature. There was a general effort to destroy the rolls of
the manor courts. These rolls, kept either in manor houses, or in the
castles of great lords, or in the monasteries, were the record of the
burdens and payments and disabilities of the villagers. Previous
payments of heriot, relief, merchet, and fines, acknowledgments of