The English Peasants' Revolt was motivated by growing contempt for the government and clergy in the wake of the Black Death, which was ultimately sparked by a variety of immediate social and economic causes. A shortage of workers followed the Black Death with around 45% of the population dying in England. As entire towns were abandoned or left lifeless, rural peasants increased their mobility in major cities. This shortage of rural workers led to famine as fields were left fallow, placing further economic pressure on the peasant classes who survived the rising price of food. Due to the lack of labor, the surviving workers demanded higher wages as they now had greater influence over the employers. This eventually led to economic inflation due to the increased cost of labor for the upper classes. This met with resistance from King Edward III and parliament, who enacted the Workmen's Ordinance of 1349 and the Workmen's Statute of 1351 in an attempt to fix workers' rates to those before the Black Death and prohibit a rise in wages beyond those pre-established. limits. This put great pressure on peasants as they were forced to work during the famine for longer hours for limited pay at inflated prices and sowed an antipathy towards the government. The general attitude towards the Church as an institution was also responsible for the English peasant revolt. At the time, the Church was still a major landowner with almost 60% of English lands owned by the Church. However, 40% of priests and monks died from the Black Death, and the lack of ecumenical authorities led to good salaries being offered to people entering the clergy. This led to many people unsuitable for the roles of religious... middle of paper... the uprising of 1381. Bath: Pitman. pp. 373. Joint action against "bad" lordship: the peasants' revolt in Essex and Norfolk. Russell, Josiah Cox (1948). Medieval British population. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.Henderson, Ernest F. (__) Select Historical Documents of the Middle AgesThe Great Revolt of 1381Anonymous Chronicle: The English Peasants' Revolt of 1381 Charles Oman, The Great Revolt of 1381, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906 ), pp. 200-203, 205England in the aftermath of the Black DeathGOOGLE BOOKS The English Rising of 1381'The Peasants Revolt', in The Medieval Reader, edited by Norman Cantor (New York: Harper Collins, 1994), 284 -93.EB Fryde , The Great Revolt of 1381, London: The Historical Association, 1981, 5-33Peasant road to capitalismPeasant Politics and Class Consciousness: The Norfolk Rebellions of 1381