The Tyler's Tale

About the Book

The year is 1381.  It is four years since King Edward III died, after a fifty year reign, leaving the crown to a frail, ten year old boy, Richard II.  During those four years, the country has been ruled by Richard’s evil uncle, the Duke of Lancaster and his ruthless partners, Simon, Archbishop of Canterbury and William Walworth, mayor of London.  These greedy men have used their power to build vast fortunes for themselves, while bleeding the peasants with endless taxes and wage rollbacks.  England’s peasants are at the breaking point when Lancaster and his associates add one more tax in May of 1381.

John Ball, a defrocked, outlawed Priest has been travelling the countryside for twenty years, holding secret nighttime meetings in forest clearings and isolated fields, building a brotherhood of poor commoners who share a bold dream.  John Ball is preaching revolutionary ideas, equality, freedom and liberty.  Ball’s ‘friends of truth’ brotherhood has grown to number hundreds of thousands.  These men and women are like a pile of dry tender wood, ready to burst into flame from a careless spark.

Lancaster’s insensitive agents provide that spark when they go into the villages of Kent to collect the new tax.  One of Lancaster’s underlings, Richard Lyon, tries to use the collection of the tax as a means to settle an old score with a tradesman named Wat Tyler.  Lyon’s attacks against Tyler’s family set in motion a revolt that threatens to completely change the face of the western world, as tens of thousands of commoners march against, a virtually defenseless London.

Now the fourteen year old King must face this crisis alone.  John Ball must try to control the massive army he has built.  Wat Tyler must fight to protect his daughter, born on the same day as King Richard, from the relentless attacks of Richard Lyon.  For Kings and commoners there is no hiding place.  Every Englishman must take a side.  Will the foundation of European life be shaken?  Or will men like Lancaster and Walworth succeed in putting down this forerunner of the American Revolution?

The Tyler’s Tale is written in a fashion that pays homage to Geoffrey Chaucer’s 1385 masterpiece The Canterbury Tales.  The story begins, three years after the peasant’s revolt, with a group of pilgrims, from various professions and economic classes, journeying towards Canterbury.  As they pass through towns that were centers of the rebellion, they begin to discuss and debate those events.  A tyler of roofs, named Fulk, from the town of Dartford, claims to have been an eyewitness to the major events and a friend of some of the most famous participants.  The tyler offers to relate the whole story to the other pilgrims as they make their journey to Canterbury.  Fulk relates the story in four parts, corresponding to the four Seasons of the year, telling one part on each of the four days of their walk.

About the Author

H. C. Dudley is a native of Wilmington, North Carolina and now resides with his wife, Vicky, in Cassville, Missouri. The Tyler’s Tale is his first novel. He is an avid student of history, especially Tudor-Age England, Arthurian and Early Christian. Possible future works include, a novel based on the Parable of the Prodigal Son, a novel about Queen Elizabeth and her lover, Robert Dudley and a series of novels about the Patriarchs of Israel.