“At first the taxes provoked disgruntlement, [1381] but this swiftly turned to outright fury as commissioners appointed to investigate widespread evasion were accused of heavy-handed tactics. The poll taxes tapped a deeper root of resentment that had been building in England’s towns and villages since the middle of the century. The Black Death had returned again to England in 1379 in an epidemic that eventually lasted for four years. The effect of this, coming on top of the first wave, in 1348 and 1349, and the Children’s Plague during 1361 and 1362, was to cause the entire structure of medieval society to creak and change. Labor, once abundant in an overpopulated realm, became scarce and expensive.”
– Dan Jones, The Plantagenets, (2012)
p. 449-450, speaking of King Richard II who was later deposed by Henry Bolingbroke, memorialized in Shakespeare’s play, Richard II