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Will the real John Ball please stand up
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VISIONARY: An illustration of the priest John Ball ("Jehã Balle") on a horse encouraging Wat Tyler's rebels ("Waultre le tieulier") of 1381
[from a c1470 manuscript of Jean Froissart's Chronicles/public domain]
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Spectres of John Ball: The Peasants’ Revolt in English Political History, 1381-2020
by James G Crossley
Equinox Publishing Ltd £25.51
“WHEN Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?” There are likely to be few readers of this paper who aren’t aware of this robustly resonant phrase attributed to John Ball, that has blasted its way through the years since 1381 like a mighty siege weapon.
I say attributed since, as Spectres of John Ball postulates, the phrase may well have been constructed by one of the many Establishment chroniclers keen to demonise the itinerant priest and to stifle his future influence.
Professor James Crossley, who is a director at the gloriously named Centre for the Critical Study of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements, devotes his opening chapter to narrowing down the few unambiguous facts about John Ball and the context of the so-called Peasants’ Revolt, or Uprising as the author prefers.
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