The Tower, 1381

Concise verdict

The King’s Bench indictment, read directly from André Réville’s 1898 printed edition, names Joanna Ferrour, not a man, as chief perpetrator and leader across three separate accusations: burning the Savoy Palace on 13 June 1381, burning the Hospital of St John at Clerkenwell on 14 June, and leading the group that stormed the Tower of London that same day, where it says she laid hands first on Archbishop Simon Sudbury and then on Robert Hales before both were beheaded. A Middlesex jury acquitted her on the Savoy and Clerkenwell charges. It never reached a verdict on the Tower charge. The reason given in Réville’s account of the proceedings is jurisdictional: the Tower stood within the city of London, not within Middlesex, and a Middlesex jury had no standing to rule on it. Joanna was released on bail, on the surety of four named men, to reappear once the court was better informed. No further record of that reappearance has been found. Separately, a tradition holds that a John Ferrour, understood to be her husband, was later pardoned by Henry IV specifically for having saved his life in the Tower during the same assault. Popular retellings tend to fold these into a single male figure, which the court record does not support, and typically stop at the accusation without stating that the Tower charge itself was never resolved.

Source hierarchy

André Réville’s 1898 printed edition of the King’s Bench Rex-side entries (Le soulèvement des travailleurs d’Angleterre en 1381, Appendice II, Série A, document 13), read directly for this audit, is treated as Tier 1 primary evidence for the indictment’s wording and the trial’s outcome. Sylvia Federico’s published translation (2001) is treated as a corroborating scholarly translation of the same entry. The Henry IV pardon tradition crediting John Ferrour is treated as a separate, later-attested claim, not yet cross-checked against a specific enrolled pardon for this audit. Chronicle accounts of the Tower’s fall are treated as near-contemporary narrative.

Provenance assessment

This audit now rests on direct inspection of Réville’s printed edition of the relevant King’s Bench entries, rather than on Federico’s translation alone; the manuscript itself (TNA KB 27/482) has not been independently inspected for this audit. The relationship between Johanna and John Ferrour, understood as husband and wife in the sources consulted, has not been confirmed against a primary genealogical or legal record establishing the connection directly. The specific regnal year in the Michaelmas-term citation is uncertain from the scan consulted, between Richard II’s third and seventh years; this does not affect the trial-outcome finding, which is stated independently of that digit.

What can safely be said

“The King’s Bench record names Johanna Ferrour, not a man, as chief perpetrator and leader of the rebel companies that burned the Savoy Palace on 13 June 1381, burned the Hospital of St John at Clerkenwell on 14 June, and stormed the Tower of London that same day, where it says she laid hands on Archbishop Sudbury before he and Lord Treasurer Robert Hales were beheaded. A Middlesex jury acquitted her on the Savoy and Clerkenwell charges. It never reached a verdict on the Tower charge, reserved because the Tower lay outside the jury’s jurisdiction, and she was released on bail to reappear at a later date. No further record of that appearance has been found. Popular retellings crediting a single ‘John Ferrour’ with these events, and separately with saving the future Henry IV’s life, appear to conflate two documented individuals, and typically omit the trial’s divided outcome altogether.” This is directly supportable from Réville’s printed edition of the King’s Bench entries, corroborated by Federico’s translation.

Unresolved evidence gaps

The KB 27 manuscript has not been independently inspected for this audit; the trial-outcome finding rests on Réville’s printed edition, corroborated by Federico’s published translation. What became of the Tower accusation after Joanna’s ordered return, at the octave of St Hilary, has not been established; no further King’s Bench entry disposing of it has been located. The specific enrolled pardon to John Ferrour has not been located and checked directly. Whether Johanna and John Ferrour were in fact married, as the secondary sources consulted assume, has not been confirmed against a primary record establishing that relationship.