Battle of North Walsham

Battle of North Walsham
Part of The Peasants' Revolt
The site of the Battle of North Walsham
Date 25 or 26 June 1381 Location near North Walsham, Norfolk, England Result Bishop of Norwich's forces' victory
Belligerents
Forces of the Bishop of Norwich	Local rebels from around the county of Norfolk
Commanders and leaders
Henry le Despenser	Geoffrey Litster of Felmingham
Strength
unknown	unknown
Casualties and losses
unknown	unknown

The Battle of North Walsham was a mediaeval battle fought on 25 or 26 June 1381, near the town of North Walsham in the English county of Norfolk, in which a large group of rebellious local peasants was confronted by the heavily armed forces of Henry le Despenser, Bishop of Norwich. The battle is significant for being the last occurrence of any major resistance during the English Peasants' Revolt of 1381.

Despenser succeeded in suppressing the rebellion that broke out throughout East Anglia that summer. His force at first consisted of his own retinue, but men flocked to him. He moved across East Anglia towards Norwich and then onwards to North Walsham to deal with the rebels, led by Geoffrey Litster, the so-called 'King of the Commons'. At North Walsham the rebels were decisively defeated by Despenser's men. Mediaeval chroniclers differ in their accounts of exactly what happened at North Walsham. After the battle, Litster was captured and executed by Despenser, but the fate of most of his rebel army is not known for certain.

The Peasants' Revolt of 1381 was a major rebellion that spread throughout mediaeval England during the summer of that year. Its causes are complex. The drop in population caused by the Black Death, which arrived in England in 1348, resulted in an acute labour shortage and consequently, higher wages. The Statute of Labourers (1351) was a law enacted during the first parliament of Edward III, to make labour laws and their intended enforcement more precise and detailed, and also to allow the government to control wages. It had the effect of making life more difficult for peasants, but more profitable for the wealthy landowners. Further discontent erupted from the behaviour of those nobles who ruled on behalf of the boy-king Richard II, and also from the position of the church; as many priests were ill-educated, and the bishops and abbots themselves were landowners, it was generally hated by the common people. Feelings were stirred up by rebellious priests such as John Ball, who criticised the church wherever the common people flocked to him to listen to his words.

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