London's Lost Revolution: William Longbeard and the Historiography of Medieval England

Abstract

William Longbeard was a holy man who led a popular revolution in London in 1196, the earliest such event known in English history. He was once a very familiar figure of history, but is now mostly forgotten, certainly outside scholarly circles. In the historiographical tradition of Longbeard, from medieval chronicles through to modern history, the caesura in the historical remembrance of Longbeard, immediately post-World War I, is empirical evidence of a particular conservative ideological turn in history writing, particularly medieval history, as a profession around 1900. More precisely, major shifts in the historiography of Longbeard coincide closely with major moments of political change and social upheaval. Twentieth-century silence contrasts with an abundance of both radical and traditional accounts of Longbeard in the 19th century. A fuller recognition of Longbeard's revolt would do much to re-assert the centrality of class conflict in the history of Britain.