Just. Wow. This has piqued my interest, is there any background information as to why this happened (so often)? There must have been underlying tentions, wondering what those were, but can imagine it's just lost to history
There's some important context that's also not covered by the Wikipedia article: the Black Death swept through Europe from 1347–1350. England's population declined by almost half and would not recover to the same level until the 1600s. As we've seen with covid, but just as a shadow, the population decline led to a huge labor shortage and high inflation. So, 1355 wasn't a happy time.
pnut|2 years ago
Oxford scholars were literally above the law, and used their protected status to abuse and demean the townspeople, up to and including the mayor.
After the riot, the king cracked down and reasserted the arrangement, which apparently continued in some forms for another 500 years.
jonstewart|2 years ago