houses,
according to the custom of roofing prevailing in those days. So he was
called John Walter, the Tiler, or simply Walter the Tiler; and from
this his name was abridged to Wat Tyler.

The whole country was in a state of great discontent and excitement on
account of the oppressions which the people suffered before Walter
appeared upon the stage at all. When at length the outbreak occurred,
he came forward as one of the chief leaders of it; there were however,
several other leaders. The names by which the principal of them were
known were Jack Straw, William Wraw, Jack Shepherd, John Milner, Hob
Carter, and John Ball. It is supposed that many of these names were
fictitious, and that the men adopted them partly to conceal their real
names, and partly because they supposed that they should ingratiate
themselves more fully with the lower classes of the people by assuming
these familiar and humble appellations.

The historians of the times say that these leaders were all very bad
men. They may have been so, though the testimony of the historians is
not conclusive on this point, for they belonged to, and wrote in the
interest of the upper classes, their enemies. The poor insurgents
themselves never had the opportunity to tell their own story, either
in respect to themselves or their commanders.

Still, it is highly probable that they were bad men. It is not
generally the amiable, the gentle, and the good that are first to
rise, and foremost to take the lead in revolts against tyrants and
oppressors. It is, on the other hand, far more commonly the violent,
the desperate, and the bad that are first goaded on to assume this
terrible responsibility. It is, indeed, one of the darkest features of
tyranny that it tends, by the reaction which follows it, to invest
this class of men with great power, and to commit the best interests
of society, and the lives of great numbers of men, for a time at
least, entirely to the disposal of the most reckless and desperate
characters.

The lower classes of the people of England had been held substantially
as slaves by the nobles and gentry for many generations. They had long
submitted to this, hopeless of any change. But they had gradually
become enlightened in respect to their natural rights; and now, when
the class immediately above them were so grievously oppressed and
harassed by the taxes which were assessed upon them, and still more by
the vexatious and extortionate mode in which