Peasants Beheaded an Archbishop and Almost Toppled a King #Shorts

Added: 2026-05-22

[00:00:00]In 1381, an angry mob of English peasants dragged the Archbishop of Canterbury from his prayers in the Tower of London and hacked off his head with eight blows of a dull axe.

[00:00:13]They were farm workers, blacksmiths, and laborers who'd marched 60 miles to London after three decades of plague, starvation wages, and a new tax that squeezed their last pennies.

[00:00:28]The rebels executed royal officials in the streets, burned legal records, and forced the 14-year-old King Richard to meet them face to face at gunpoint.

[00:00:39]He promised them freedom from serfdom, then betrayed every word once his soldiers regrouped.

[00:00:47]The peasants went home thinking they'd won, and the hangings started within a week.