Away with the learning of clerks, away with it!

"Away with the learning of clerks, away with it!" was a rallying cry of rebellious townspeople during the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 in Cambridge, during which they sacked the university and official buildings and burnt legal documents and charters en masse. The call is usually ascribed to Margery (sometimes Margaret) Starre (fl. 1381). Starre is generally described as an "old woman", and she has been characterised as a beldam.

The story of this woman's violence against texts is not unknown—it has been noted several times in major studies of the revolt—but its significance as part of the much larger story of women in 1381 has been overlooked.

Sylvia Federico
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