Spectres of John Ball; The Peasants’ Revolt in English Political History, 1381–2020; Crossley

James Crossley [+–]

St Mary’s University, London

James Crossley is Research Professor in Bible, Society, and Politics at MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion, and Society, Academic Director of the Centre for the Critical Study of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements (CenSAMM), and Professor of Bible and Society at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, London. He is author of numerous books and articles on Christian Origins, reception history of the Bible, and English politics and religion, reception history of the Bible, including Cults, Martyrs and Good Samaritans: Religion in Contemporary English Political Discourse (Pluto, 2018). The website John Ball, English Legend provides images and resources discussed in Spectres of John Ball.

For centuries, the priest John Ball was one of the most famous — or infamous — figures in the history of English rebels. Ball was one of the central figures of the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 and was soon vilified, receiving a hostile press for 400 years as an archetypal enemy of the state and a religious zealot. His reputation was rescued at the end of the eighteenth century, and, for over one hundred years, he rivalled Robin Hood and Wat Tyler as a great English folk hero. But his 640-year reception involves much more.

Spectres of John Ball explains how we get from an apocalyptic priest and advocate for violent retribution to someone who promoted democracy and vague notions of love and tolerance. This book also explains why he has gone out of fashion — and whether he can make another comeback.

Chapter 1

Introduction: 1381 [+–] 1-12

This chapter introduces the issue of a reception history of John Ball and provides a summary of the 1381 uprising with a particular focus on events in London and south-east England.

Chapter 2

The Quest for the Historical John Ball [+–] 13-42

This chapter looks at reconstructing Ball’s life prior and up to the 1381 uprising, and some of the earliest perceptions about him. It also provides explanations of how ideas associated with or attributed to Ball (e.g., apocalypticism, biblical interpretation, violence, all things in common) might have been understood.

Chapter 3

Exit Ball: Late Medieval Receptions [+–] 43-54

This chapter looks at the beginning of the long reception of Ball as a heretic and seditious threat in late medieval England. However, alongside this reception was an ignoring of Ball in some prominent accounts of 1381. This chapter provides reasons for this absence—and the grounds for his return.

Chapter 4

Ball and the English Reformation [+–] 55-73

This chapter looks at how and why Ball became a convenient foil for debates around rebellion, national security, Catholicism, and the perceived extremities of Protestantism in the sixteenth century. This also includes discussion of a tradition of Ball as a proto-Protestant martyr which needed to be presented with great care.

Chapter 5

Ghosts of 1381: Uneasy Heresies, Radicalisms, and Discontents in Late Elizabethan and Early Jacobean England [+–] 74-86

This chapter looks at perceptions of Ball at the turn of the seventeenth century against the backdrop of rapid population growth in London and continuing debates about the Reformation, rebellion, and traitors. This also includes discussion of the ambiguities of the reception of Ball and comparative figures on the stage.

Chapter 6

The Priest of Baal in Revolutionary England [+–] 87-103

This chapter looks at how Ball’s notoriety found new polemical relevance in civil war England where the rebels of 1381 could be used on both sides to attack the other. Restoration presentations of Ball as a warning about the recent past are also discussed.

Chapter 7

Perverted Liberty and the End of Stuart England: Ball among Whigs, Tories, Jacobites, and Other Mobs [+–] 104-129

This chapter looks at how the reception of Ball was again rethought in light of debates about mixed monarchy and constitutionalism following the accession of William of Orange and the emergence of Tory and Whig factions and history writing.

Chapter 8

Georgian John: From Mob Rule to Reasonable Demands [+–] 130-145

This chapter looks at how Ball was understood in the ‘century of the mob’ against the backdrop of rapid population growth in London and dramatic stories of famous criminals. It also looks at how Ball’s ideas were increasingly difficult to criticise as serfdom was a thing of the distant past.

Chapter 9

Revolution, Once Again: A Freeborn Englishman in the Late Eighteenth Century [+–] 146-161

This chapter looks at how the American and French revolutions provided a suitable context both for updating the negative press Ball had received for 400 years and for rescuing the memory of 1381, including how these debates were played out between Edmund Burke and Thomas Paine.

Chapter 10

The Second Coming of John Ball: John Baxter, Robert Southey and Radicalism of the 1790s [+–] 162-174

This chapter looks at how Ball’s reputation was reclaimed in the political radicalism of the 1790s by, for instance, John Baxter and a young Robert Southey in his initially unpublished but hugely influential dramatic poem, Wat Tyler.

Chapter 11

After Waterloo: The Poet Laureate’s John Ball [+–] 175-198

This chapter looks at the controversies surrounding Southey’s Wat Tyler as it was used to shame the now Poet Laureate. It looks at how Ball (often Southey’s version) was used in the aftermath of the economic hardships and political tensions following the Napoleonic Wars.

Chapter 12

‘Peaceably If We May, Forcibly If We Must’: Ball among the Chartists [+–] 199-217

This chapter looks at how Ball (often Southey’s) and the rebels of 1381 were a point of reference in Chartist discourse and propaganda in the mid-nineteenth century. This also includes a discussion of the development of an English identity grounded in politics, economic behaviour, culture, etc., rather than a biologically racialised Victorian English identity.

Chapter 13

Haranguing after Chartism: The Making of the Victorian Ball [+–] 218-240

This chapter looks at the decades following Chartism when Ball, though not without his opponents, was commonly seen as a positive figure (whether reformist or radical). This also includes discussion of how Ball was used as a revolutionary supporter of abolitionism, echoing ideas of English identity found among Chartists.

Chapter 14

Class Struggle among the Historians [+–] 241-267

This chapter looks at the closer scrutiny paid to Ball and the 1381 uprising by historians of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and how the language of Marx, Marxism, socialism, and the emerging labour movement was affecting assessments of 1381.

Chapter 15

William Morris: Delaying Ball’s New World [+–] 268-297

This chapter looks at the most influential portrayal of Ball since Southey: William Morris’s A Dream of John Ball. This includes discussion of how Morris saw Ball as a martyr, a kindred spirit, a Catholic, and a revolutionary example for the present and future from a historical materialist perspective.

Chapter 16

Still Dreaming of John Ball [+–] 298-327

This chapter looks at the influence of Morris’s presentation of Ball in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries across a range of political perspectives (liberal, socialist, revolutionary, communist, anarchist, etc.), as well as some presentations not obviously influenced by Morris.

Chapter 17

Red John? Ball after the Great War [+–] 328-344

This chapter looks at the influence of World War One on the reception of Ball and the political (e.g., Labour, Communist Party) and even religious (e.g., continued Protestantising, developments at Thaxted, notions of ‘prophet’) competition over the interpretation of Ball and Morris’s understanding of Ball in particular.

Chapter 18

Bolshevik Ball [+–] 345-361

This chapter looks at how the perceived threat of Bolshevism could be used to evoke old memories of Ball as a seditious threat. Yet among socialists, Ball was regularly invoked, and in Communist Party circles he was understood from a historical materialist perspective and now employed in the fight against fascism.

Chapter 19

Cold War Ball [+–] 362-385

This chapter looks at how socialist readings continued in the Cold War, while others struggled because of Communist Party associations. It also looks at how the study of apocalypticism in the mid-twentieth century updated the reading of a seditious Ball by making connections with Nazism and the Soviet Union.

Chapter 20

Rodney Hilton: Ball at the End of Historical Materialism? [+–] 386-401

This chapter looks at the most influential academic Marxist portrayal of 1381 by Rodney Hilton which developed ideas of religious dissent and understandings of peasantry. While Hilton can be seen as a high point in historical materialist approaches, his popular influence soon waned amidst a fragmented post-1968 Left.

Chapter 21

Ball after 1968 [+–] 402-415

This chapter looks at the ways the post-1968 Left appropriated Ball, including the emergence of Tony Benn’s influential understandings of British/English radicalism. While issues of class conflict remained, this chapter also shows how the older Marxist interpretations were losing influence.

Chapter 22

1381/1981 [+–] 416-435

This chapter looks at the different presentations (from Left to Right) of Ball during the six-hundredth anniversary of the 1381 uprising. This chapter traces the legacy of the most influential and implicitly nonviolent understanding of Ball since Morris: Sydney Carter’s folk hymn, ‘Sing John Ball.’

Chapter 23

Twenty-First Century Ball [+–] 436-458

This chapter looks at the ongoing niche understandings of Ball. It also shows why sympathetic interpreters on the Left and in memorials struggle with questions of violence and religion after the decline of historical materialist readings, while a violent and religiously dedicated Ball thrives in novels and documentaries.

Chapter 24

Epilogue [+–] 459-464

This chapter synthesises and analyses the findings from the rest of the book, as well as providing suggestions for future study and some thoughts on future receptions of Ball.

End Matter

Bibliography [+–] 465-510

For centuries, the priest John Ball was one of the most infamous or famous figures in the history of English rebels, best known for his saying ‘When Adam delved and Eve Span, Who was then the gentleman’. But over the past hundred years his memory has faded dramatically. Along with Wat Tyler, Ball was one of the leaders of the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381, a historically remarkable event in that leading figures of the realm were beheaded by the rebels. For a few days in June 1381, the rebels dominated London but soon met their demise, with Ball executed. Ball provided the theological justification for the uprising which he saw in apocalyptic terms. After the revolt, he was soon vilified and received an overwhelmingly hostile press for 400 years as an archetypal enemy of the state and a religious zealot. His reputation was rescued from the end of the eighteenth century onward and for over one hundred years he rivalled Robin Hood and Wat Tyler as a great English folk (and even abolitionist) hero. But his 640-year reception involves much more, of course, and is tied up with the story of what England is or could be. Overall, the book explains how we get from an apocalyptic priest who promoted a theocracy favouring the lower orders and the decapitation of the leading church and secular authorities to someone who promoted democracy and vague notions about love and tolerance. The book also explains why he has gone out of fashion and whether he can make another comeback.

Subject Index 511-526

Person Index 527-537

Reviews

James Crossley’s signature studies of the use of Bible and religion in British politics are well known, and deservedly so. With his new book, he has taken this approach to new heights. Crossley takes the now relatively little known John Ball, one of the leaders of the 1381 peasant revolt and, starting from a historical reconstruction of his life, traces his reception up to our own time. However, this is more than a reception history of Ball as an individual. Crossley uses the memories of Ball to write a comprehensive social and political history of the radical strands in English society through more than 600 years. Crossley’s extensive readings of sources, archives and secondary literature is nothing but impressive. He includes sources way beyond what is common in political studies: art, literature, operas, pageants are important for Crossley’s reconstruction of English society viewed from below. Particularly instructive is Crossley’s discussion of the novel A Dream of John Ball by the pre-Raphaelite socialist William Morris, which played a key role in the late 19th century. Throughout Crossley’s discussion of religion in English politics draws on his unique combination of expertise in Biblical studies and ideological criticism. With this great book Crossley has successfully brought his explorations of the interrelations of religion and politics from late modernity to cover much of English history. Spectres of John Ball is simply a masterwork!
Halvor Moxnes, Professor Emeritus, Faculty of Theology, University of Oslo

An important and carefully crafted insight into the production of English political history, and thus has much to offer on many levels (historical detail, shaping of academic, clerical, and popular traditions, English history). It is very well written and carefully argued and through a wealth of information gathers an impressive momentum throughout. In other words, what James Crossley does not know about Ball is not worth knowing. Spectres of John Ball: The Peasants’ Revolt in English Political History, 1381–2020 gives a view of English political history from an unexpected angle and maintains an excellent balance between historical detail and overall perspective.
Christina Petterson, Gerda Henkel Research Fellow, The Australian National University, and author of The Missionary, the Catechist, and the Hunter: Foucault, Protestantism, and Colonialism and Acts of Empire: The Acts of the Apostles and Imperial Ideology

With enchanting and absorbing detail, James Crossley restores John Ball and his legacy to the boiler-room of English radical history. In Crossley’s hands, Ball comes into his own, a chameleon-like figure inspiring revolutionaries and reactionaries, cast both as the 'reverend patriarch of sedition' and as the 'hero of English history'. These changing conceptions of Ball are carefully correlated with cultural and political conditions in England subsisting since the upheavals of 1381.
Deane Galbraith, Lecturer in Religion, University of Otago

Crossley’s work is a masterpiece of reception history that brings order to the chaos of its radical subject, and finally gives John Ball, one of the enduring and protean figures of the English revolutionary tradition, the sustained attention he deserves. A fascinating and exhilarating read that deftly explores the contours of the afterlives of Ball, and his transformations throughout six centuries, Crossley’s study will inspire readers to think again about an enigmatic figure that has so often been at the heart of revolutionary — and reactionary — narratives of Englishness.
Justin Meggitt, University Senior Lecturer in the Study of Religion, University of Cambridge

In a compelling and authoritative manner, [Crossley] thoroughly examines how subsequent prevailing economic, cultural and social structures and the challenges to those structures determined how Ball was referenced...Spectres of John Ball is an immensely, impressively propulsive read, undergirded by rigorous but not elitist scholarship into a figure who may still help to explain and inspire a new mass movement to itself and to others.
Morning Star

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Spectres of John Ball

The Peasants’ Revolt in English Political History, 1381–2020

James Crossley [+–]

St Mary’s University, London

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