# Walter atte Keye

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...Walter atte Keye, leading a company of other malefactors, came to the house of Andrew Vernoun, brewer, at Paul's Wharf, London, on the said Friday [14 June]. Walter criminally and treasonably forced his way into the said house unless the latter paid a fine to him. In the face of these threats, and in fear of his life, Andrew paid a fine of 3s 4*d* which Walter received despite its criminal and treasonable form. Accordngly Walter was a common malefactor to take such fines, as he did with many men in the said city of London.[1]

— '**The Indictment of Walter atte Keye*, November 1381*, – [The National Archives](/source/The_National_Archives_(United_Kingdom)), *coram rege* rolls: KB 27/482/43**

**Walter atte Keye** was a late-fourteenth-century [brewer](/source/Brewer) of Wood Street in the [City of London](/source/City_of_London).[1] He is best known as one of the leaders of the 1381 [Peasants' Revolt](/source/Peasants'_Revolt) in London.

On 14 June 1381[2] Keye attempted to steal and destroy the [Common Council](/source/Court_of_Common_Council)'s book of [ordinances](/source/By-law), called *le Jubyle*, or Jubilee Book.[note 1] It was stored in a [sheriff](/source/Sheriff)'s [compter](/source/Compter). The rebels also attacked the [Guildhall](/source/Guildhall) and other civic buildings first[3] and at least the former he attempted to burn down.[2] Since the book was subsequently burned by a later Mayor of London, [Nicholas Exton](/source/Nicholas_Exton),[4] little is known of its contents of the book. Historians have been unable to ascertain Keye's motive for his "frenzied" search for it.[1][5] Keye also appears to have personally led a small armed force to the Milk Street [sheriff](/source/Sheriff)'s [compter](/source/Compter), which they assaulted and despoiled.[6] Keye also took advantage of the general turmoil of the time to extort money from fellow brewers.[3] He and his associates have been described by [Barrie Dobson](/source/Barrie_Dobson) as showing that there was at least one rebel group "prepared to challenge the authority of the civic hierarchy as well as that of royal officials and agents."[7]

## Notes

1. The Jubilee Book (so-called due to is compilation during Edward III's jubilee year, 1376-7), substantially and radically revised the city's [ordinances](/source/By-law), although due to its later destruction by Mayor Exton, the book's precise contents remain necessarily vague.[8]

## References

1. Dobson 1983, p. 227.

1. Petit-Dutaillis & Lefebvre 1969, p. 282 n.3.

1. Barker 2014, p. 276.

1. Turner 2007, p. 21.

1. London 1907, p. lii.

1. Arner 2013, p. 39.

1. Dobson 1983, pp. 226–227.

1. Barron 1981, p. 16.

### Bibliography

- [*Chaucer, Gower, and the Vernacular Rising: Poetry and the Problem of the Populace After 1381*](https://books.google.com/books?id=9-4tCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT39). Penn State Press. 2013. ISBN 978-0-271-06207-5.
- [*1381: The Year of the Peasants' Revolt*](https://books.google.com/books?id=pT0yBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA276). Harvard University Press. 2014. ISBN 978-0-674-36814-9.
- Barron, Caroline M. (1981). *Revolt in London: 11 to 15 June 1381*. London: Museum of London. ISBN 978-0-904818-05-5.
- [*The Peasants' Revolt of 1381*](https://books.google.com/books?id=ruquCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA227). Palgrave Macmillan UK. 1983. ISBN 978-1-349-16990-0.
- [*Calendar of Letter-books Preserved Among the Archives of the Corporation of the City of London at the Guildhall*](https://books.google.com/books?id=QGlIAAAAYAAJ). J.E. Francis. 1907.
- [*Studies and Notes Supplementary to Stubbs' Constitutional History*](https://books.google.com/books?id=GedRAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA282). Manchester University Press. 1969. ISBN 978-0-7190-0341-7.
- [*Chaucerian Conflict: Languages of Antagonism in Late Fourteenth-Century London*](https://books.google.com/books?id=oJkUDAAAQBAJ). Clarendon Press. 2007. ISBN 978-0-19-920789-3.

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