Walter atte Keye

Walter atte Keye was a late-fourteenth-century brewer of Wood Street in the City of London.[1] He is best known as one of the leaders of the 1381 Peasants' Revolt in London.

The Indictment of Walter atte Keye, November 1381

...Walter atte Keye, leading a company of other malefactors, came to the house of Andrew Vernoun, brewer, at Paul's Wharf, London, on the said Friday [14 June]. Walter criminally and treasonably forced his way into the said house unless the latter paid a fine to him. In the face of these threats, and in fear of his life, Andrew paid a fine of 3s 4d which Walter received despite its criinal and treasonable form. Accordngly Walter was a common malefactor to take such fines, as he did with many men in the said city of London.[1]

– The National Archives, coram rege rolls: KB 27/482/43

On 14 June 1381[2] Keye attempted to steal and destroy the Common Council's book of ordinances, called le Jubyle, or Jubilee Book.[note 1] It was stored in a sheriff's compter. The rebels also attacked the Guildhall and other civic buildings first[4] and at least the former he attempted to burn down.[2] Since the book was subsequently burned by a later Mayor of London, Nicholas Exton,[5] little is known of its contents of the book. Historians have been unable to ascertain Keye's motive for his "frenzied" search for it.[1][6] Keye also appears to have personally led a small armed force to the Milk Street sheriff's compter, which they assaulted and despoiled.[7] Keye also took advantage of the general turmoil of the time to extort money from fellow brewers.[4] He and his associates have been described by Barrie Dobson as showing that there was at least one rebel group "prepared to challenge the authority of the civic hierarchy as well as that of royal officials and agents."[8]

Notes
  1. The Jubilee Book (so-called due to is compilation during Edward III's jubilee year, 1376-7), substantially and radically revised the city's ordinances, although due to its later destruction by Mayor Exton, the book's precise contents remain necessarily vague.[3]

References
  1. Dobson 1983, p. 227.
  2. Petit-Dutaillis & Lefebvre 1969, p. 282 n.3.
  3. Barron 1981, p. 16.
  4. Barker 2014, p. 276.
  5. Turner 2007, p. 21.
  6. London 1907, p. lii.
  7. Arner 2013, p. 39.
  8. Dobson 1983, pp. 226–227.

Bibliography
  • Arner, L. (2013). Chaucer, Gower, and the Vernacular Rising: Poetry and the Problem of the Populace After 1381. Penn State Press. ISBN 978-0-271-06207-5.
  • Barker, J. (2014). 1381: The Year of the Peasants' Revolt. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-36814-9.
  • Barron, Caroline M. (1981). Revolt in London: 11 to 15 June 1381. London: Museum of London. ISBN 978-0-904818-05-5.
  • Dobson, R.B. (1983). The Peasants' Revolt of 1381. Palgrave Macmillan UK. ISBN 978-1-349-16990-0.
  • London, Corporation of (1907). Calendar of Letter-books Preserved Among the Archives of the Corporation of the City of London at the Guildhall. J.E. Francis.
  • Petit-Dutaillis, C.; Lefebvre, G. (1969). Studies and Notes Supplementary to Stubbs' Constitutional History. Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0-7190-0341-7.
  • Turner, M. (2007). Chaucerian Conflict: Languages of Antagonism in Late Fourteenth-Century London. Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-19-920789-3.
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