Samuel Stephen Chronicles

Samuel Stephen

A podcast exploring how documentation shapes power across history—from medieval manorial rolls to Hollywood contracts. Each episode examines how archives become weapons, and how people throughout history have resisted erasure through paperwork. Hosted by Samuel Stephen, novelist and historian. samuelstephenchronicles.substack.com

Episodes

  1. Mar 26

    The Peasants Revolt - Episode 3: The Fiscal Crisis

    Episode 3: The Fiscal Crisis (1377-1380) Edward III is dead. Richard II is ten years old. France is winning the war. And the English government needs money it does not have. This is the story of three poll taxes in four years. Three experiments in control. Three escalating failures. And the final decision that would ignite England. TIMELINE COVERED: June 21, 1377 - May 30, 1381 KEY FIGURES: - Edward III (King of England, d. June 21, 1377) - Richard II (King of England, crowned age 10) - John of Gaunt (Duke of Lancaster, shadow king) - Archbishop Simon Sudbury (Lord Chancellor) - Admiral Jean de Vienne (French naval commander) - Thomas Bampton (Tax commissioner, Essex) - Thomas Baker (Village representative, Fobbing) THE THREE POLL TAXES: 1377: 4 pence per person, age 14+ → Collected £22,524 (102% of target) 1379: Graduated tax → Collected £18,600 (37% of target) 1381: 12 pence per person, age 15+ → Mass evasion, violent resistance WHAT HAPPENED: Summer 1377: French raids devastate English coast (Rye, Portsmouth, Hastings) November 1377: First poll tax passes - it works Spring 1379: Second poll tax (graduated) - massive evasion November 1380: Third poll tax (triple the first rate) - government escalates March 1381: Enforcement commissions sent to root out evasion May 30, 1381: Thomas Bampton arrives in Brentwood, Essex June 1381: England explodes PRIMARY SOURCES REFERENCED: - Thomas Walsingham, Chronica Maiora - Henry Knighton, Chronicle - Parliament Rolls (PROME) - Poll tax returns (Carolyn Fenwick compilations) - Patent Rolls (CPR 1377-1381) MODERN SCHOLARSHIP: - Carolyn Fenwick, Poll Taxes of 1377, 1379 and 1381 - Rodney Hilton, Bond Men Made Free - Rosamund Faith, "The Great Rumour of 1377" - Parliamentary Rolls of Medieval England (PROME) THE PATTERN: Suppressed wages (Episode 1) + Rigged courts (Episode 2) + Massive taxation (Episode 3) = Revolt (Episode 4) NEXT TIME: Episode 4: "Now Is Time" - John Ball's Letters (May-June 1381) The match that lit the fire wasn't struck in Brentwood. It was struck in a prison cell in Maidstone, Kent, where a hedge priest named John Ball was writing letters. And those letters contained the most dangerous words the English government had ever heard. --- THE PEASANTS' REVOLT is a 10-episode documentary series examining the Great Rising of 1381 through the lens of institutional analysis. New episodes every two weeks. Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Substack Website: samuelstephenchronicles.com Get full access to Samuel Stephen Chronicles at samuelstephenchronicles.substack.com/subscribe

    The Peasants Revolt - Episode 3: The Fiscal Crisis

  2. Feb 10

    Episode 3 — Æthelstan and the Architecture of Power

    Episode 3 — Æthelstan and the Architecture of Power In this episode, we examine the most consequential succession crisis in early medieval England — and the quiet political machinery that resolved it. After the death of Edward the Elder, England does not pass smoothly to a single heir. Instead, the nobility of Mercia makes a radical choice: they proclaim Æthelstan king — not of Mercia, and not of Wessex, but of all the English. What follows is not immediate unity, but resistance. Wessex hesitates. Rival claimants emerge. Æthelstan’s legitimacy is questioned. His coronation is delayed tellingly — by more than a year. This episode explores why that delay matters. We look at: Why Mercia acted first — and alone How political legitimacy was constructed before coronation The difference between ruling Wessex and ruling England How administrative consensus, not force, made unification durable Æthelstan does not inherit a kingdom. He is installed into one — by institutions learning, for the first time, how to think nationally. This is not a story about conquest.It is a story about systems. Get full access to Samuel Stephen Chronicles at samuelstephenchronicles.substack.com/subscribe

  3. Jan 22

    Administrative Violence in History

    A podcast exploring how documentation shapes power across history—from medieval manorial rolls to Hollywood contracts. Each episode examines how archives become weapons, and how people throughout history have resisted erasure through paperwork. Hosted by Samuel Stephen, novelist and historian. Get full access to Samuel Stephen Chronicles at samuelstephenchronicles.substack.com/subscribe

    Administrative Violence in History
  • 3 Episodes

About

A podcast exploring how documentation shapes power across history—from medieval manorial rolls to Hollywood contracts. Each episode examines how archives become weapons, and how people throughout history have resisted erasure through paperwork. Hosted by Samuel Stephen, novelist and historian. samuelstephenchronicles.substack.com

Information

  • Creator
    Samuel Stephen
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    3
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Samuel Stephen Chronicles.
  • Show Website
    Samuel Stephen Chronicles