Tyler, WAT

Tyler, WAT, leader of the peasant revolt of 1381. According to the traditional story, an insult offered by a tax-gatherer to the daughter of Walter the Tyler (a tiler of roofs) at Dartford in Kent led to the outbreak. Wat brained the tax-gatherer; and under Wat and Jack Straw the populace rose throughout Kent and Essex. Their first act was to liberate John Ball, who lay in Maidstone prison for Wyclifite teaching and seditious utterances, and then they marched on London. The several causes of the rebellion, its brief course, and its swift and summary suppression, with the death of Wat at the hands of Lord Mayor Walworth, are treated at RICHARD II.