Peasants' Revolt - Storming The Tower of London

Storming The Tower of London

At the same time, a group of rebels led by Johanna Ferrour stormed the Tower of London and summarily executed those hiding there, including the Lord Chancellor (Simon of Sudbury, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who was particularly associated with the poll tax), and the Lord Treasurer (Robert de Hales, the Grand Prior of the Knights Hospitallers of England). Simon Sudbury's part-mummified head is preserved in his home town of Sudbury, clearly showing the axe mark.

Elsewhere in London the Savoy Palace of the king's uncle John of Gaunt was one of the buildings destroyed by the rioters. The unpopular financier Richard Lyons was also captured and beheaded.

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