Here is the latest reply to our Back-in-Time Survey. Thank you, A. Edgar, for your informative and thought-provoking response!

John Ball
John Ball and his colleague / co-conspirator Watt Tyler managed to inspire hundreds, if not thousands of peasants to rebel, in response to events just before 1380. This was just after the Great Plague had hit Britain, and the old feudal order was just beginning to break down. Peasants were beginning to break free of the feudal ties which held them to particular lords, or manors, and were demanding payment for work. In response, the lords formed a parliament and passed the Statute of Labourers which limited the payment for work to levels which preceded the plague. In addition, a Poll Tax was imposed to pay for a war in France, which many peasnats found intolerable. Between them, Watt Tyler and John Ball managed to incte these peasants, from all over the south of England, to rebel and to march on London. There volt failed, of cours, but I'd like to witness the events, or at least talk to the people involved, to see how they viewed the beginnings of the great changes ! which were about to happen.

The date: February on 1381
Because, from March to June John Ball was imprisoned, so it would be difficult to talk to him, knowing what Medieval prisons were like, and from June onwards, after he was released by the rebel peasants, he was rather busy leading the peasant's revolt, so February would be a good time to talk to him about his aspirations and his ida of what sort of society he would like to see established.

I'd tell him I am a historian, and that I admire his views, based on one historical source, and I'd be interested to see what he thinks of the Medieval world, which had its own curbs of freedom, and great financial inequality, as compared to our own world. I don't think he'd see much improvement.

I'd ask him where he got his ideas from...

I'd ask him what he thought about the society of his day, and what he'd like to see as the society of the future.

I'd ask him if he really thouht the revolt was going to succeed.

I'd show him examples of other people who had similar views on the world from later in history and ask his opinions of them, but I'd just say these people were from "another place" to avoid his confusion.

Would you try to convince him you're from the future, and warn him against events that are yet to happen?
No
Because that would alter history, and that is not why I am there, I am there to witness and to discuss the ideas he had, and the reasons behind his ideas, not to change his mind.

I'd just bring books with examples of other people's ideas, perhaps of other revolutions and attempts at fighting for equality, to see what he thinks.

I might take somehting to record what I see and what I hear, like a video camera, but I'd have to hide it so it wouldn't be seen.

Would you try to change history?
No
That is not my role. If I can't change history in my own time, what chance do I have in the past?

Anyway, changing history isn't a good idea, too many people would want to change it in too many different ways.

If we want a better world, going into the past is a "cheat", and working toimprove the future is what we should concentrate on, with history as a way of teaching us to understand the processes of change, ideas, concepts etc which will help us decide how to shape our future.

A. Edgar

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